Bus users in Dublin are being asked if they would be prepared to change buses more often if it meant more frequent services and faster journeys.
The question is being posed as part of plans by transport chiefs for a radical redesign of routes. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has committed €1 billion to its recently launched Bus Connects masterplan to transform services, grow passenger numbers, make journeys faster and reduce congestion.
The authority wants to ascertain how prepared customers would be to change their commute and they are being asked to submit their views on the proposals using an online survey.
Jarrett Walker, a US-based public transport specialist who is advising the authority on the network changes, said the existing system was very complicated and difficult for users to remember, with many routes overlapping each other.
Mr Walker said that radial routes that went from the outer suburbs to the city centre were reaching their limits, while orbital services, such as the 75 from Tallaght to Dún Laoghaire, were too infrequent. “We want to get more people to more places, more quickly,” he said.
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He acknowledged that commuters did not like having to change buses, but said the inconvenience could be minimised by ensuring there were more regular and reliable services which would result in faster overall journey times. Other proposals included improving shelters and real time information at stops where passengers would change. “The overwhelming majority of people will still be on a radial route to the city centre. Relatively few people will have to change bus twice,” Mr Walker said.
Mr Walker, who has helped to transform transport systems in cities such as Auckland and Reykjavik, admitted that encouraging more people to use the new routes would be another challenge.
Anne Graham, chief executive of the NTA, said that commuters would not be penalised in terms of bus fares for having to take an interconnecting bus service.
She added that the new fare structures would be modelled to maintain revenues at existing levels.
The NTA expects to publish its recommendations for changes this year and consult further before updating routes late next year.
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Analysis: A stretch too far for some
Ray Coyne, the Dublin Bus chief executive, welcomed the €1 billion investment. “An excellent bus network is clearly of strategic importance to the city,” he said, adding that an estimated 130 million journeys would be made on the capital’s buses this year. He said Dublin Bus would work closely with Mr Walker and the NTA to “future proof” the city’s network. The online survey can be accessed at busconnects.ie until July 7.
Dublin Bus is the workhorse of the city with bus commuters accounting for two-thirds of all journeys taken on public transport (Seán McCárthaigh writes).
In the absence of projects such as the Metro North and the Dart Interconnector being introducted within the next decade, bus services will remain crucial.
For that reason changing the route network is the simplest and quickest way of improving public transport.
The National Transport Authority also believes that an expansion of bus lanes and the introduction of rapid transit corridors can increase passenger numbers by 50 per cent on the 130 million journeys on Dublin Bus a year.
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The outline of a €1 billion redesign was unveiled by Jarrett Walker, a public transport planning expert, in Dublin yesterday.
He said that an interconnecting network, achieved through more orbital routes that avoid the city centre and more frequent services, can speed up journey times despite the need to change buses.
Think of the route maps of the London Underground or Paris Metro for an idea of how it might look.
People are more reluctant to use buses when they have to change. However, the NTA and Mr Walker are convinced that the promise of faster journey times, aided by more reliable services and better information facilities and bus shelters, will make the prospect more acceptable. While route changes could be introduced in a “big bang” as early as late next year, other measures to make bus transport more attractive, such as the extension of bus lanes, will take longer, although some changes have already been introduced.
Routes that cross from one side of the city to another instead of ending in the city centre and bus stops and apps with real-time information have made travel by bus a more palatable option in recent years.
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Persuading Dublin commuters to get on and off more regularly might be one journey too far — however solid the theory behind it is.