Sir, – Bus Connects is the National Transport Authority’s (NTA) plan for public transport in the Dublin region.
After attending an NTA public information meeting and reading the documentation, I now understand that the service currently provided by my local bus, the 15A, which travels to the city via Terenure, Rathgar and Rathmines, will be effectively discontinued.
Hundreds of adults and children living on the 15A bus route attend schools or work in these areas.
Under the NTA plan, they will be required to take three buses in order to get to school or work.
The inevitable result will be that many parents, if they have cars, will drive their children to school instead of taking public transport.
The same scenario will apply in the case of people visiting the shops, arriving at their places of work, doctors’ surgeries, churches, banks, pubs, restaurants all of which they have accessed for many years using the current bus service.
The NTA’s stated role is to enable more people to travel by bus than ever before and allow more people to access more places by bus.
Clearly, at least in my case, it will fail miserably. I would advise anyone who uses Dublin Bus to log on to the Bus Connects website, which provides details of the plan, and use the facility to make submissions if they have issues with the proposals. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN McDONALD,
Terenure,
Dublin 12.