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The quality of public transport in Ireland has been a huge bugbear of mine for many years, as someone who was more or less reliant upon it to get around.
After waiting for an hour in the cold in Galway's main taxi rank last night for the privilege of being overcharged for my journey home (one should not need to pay 15euro to go about 3km from Galway's city centre to its most popolous suburb in order to get home at night), I have finally reached breaking point, and I feel inclined to start becoming active in changing things - in so far as I can, at least, as someone who is not a full time resident in the country at the moment.
So I have two questions:
- Is there some sort of public transport users association or lobby group in Ireland (I know there is one for trains specifically, but is there a general public transport one)?
- If not, do you think there would be demand for one?
I'd really be interested in hearing from like-minded individuals who would be willing to work with me in an organised manner on lobbying for transport reform.
I think there are a lot of things, both big and small which can and should be done. Some are expensive. Some are inexpensive.
In the short-term, a number of small steps could really make a huge impact on the quality of public transport, at relatively minimal cost. The types of lobbying could involve ideas such as the following:
- Introduction of proper easy to read and follow comprehensive route maps and timetables at every stop: there should be no need for "prior knowledge" to operate a bus route.
- At busy times of day switch the emphasis on guaranteed frequency rather specific times if they cannot be met due to volatile traffic e.g. a bus is guarenteed to turn up every 10 minutes.
- Putting signs up at bus stops naming each stop so users can be told where to get on and off without prior knowledge. This can be supplemented with announcements and/or LCD display screens in the buses which indicate the stop name.
- Switch from a system where the driver checks everybody's ticket on entry, and sells them a ticket if necessary, to one where tickets are typically pre-purchased in advance and are checked by random inspections with corresponding fines. This would:
- Dramaticly decrease entry and exit times by opening both front and central doors to allow people to get on and off en mass without queuing.
- Avoid those situations where people are waiting in the cold while an empty bus sits in front of them because the driver is taking a break and cannot check tickets.
- Push further for integrated ticketing between buses, Luas, DART and trains. Technologically speaking, this should NOT be expensive or difficult.
- Integration of ticket purchase and timetabling of different operators. Even if there are many private operators behind the scenes, services should appear as consolidated and integrated as possible to the end-user.
- Introduce online and kiosk ticket purchase and services such as route and journey planners.
- Build more bus shelters so people are not waiting in the rain as much.
- Try and consolidate areas with multiple bus routes into mini-stations or hubs such as if it was an underground or tram.
- Introduce LCD displays at major bus hubs indicating how long it is until the next bus, such as exists with the Luas.
- Expand and increase the frequency of night services. As far as I am aware, these are more or less non-existent outside of Dublin. People should not need to pay a small fortune for taxis to get home at night to the suburbs due to an absence of buses.
- Push for auditing and transparent statistics on punctuality and accuracy of bus timetables, and a responsibility of operators to report "no shows" to some central authority and to the end-user.
- Lobby for more dynamism in the introduction of new routes and new times (I don't think the times have changed on my local Bus Eireann bus in 7 years and the region has doubled in size since!).
- Push for more temporary routes to special events and on special occasions such as Christmas, festivals, St. Patrick's Day etc..
- Better policing of public transport so that thugs and trouble makers actually get reported by the driver to the Gardai and action is taken - perhaps some sort of small team of public transport policemen.
- Placing of standards on bus operators (particularly private operators) so that buses must be realistically accessible and comfortable for disabled users and older people.
- Better sign-posting of the locations of bus terminals, taxi ranks, and how to get to them from other locations such as the airport, common sightseeing locations, large shopping centres.
- Further reform of taxi fare structures.
- Mechanisms to report overcharging of taxi drivers with follow-up inspections and fines.
- Provisions for taxi-sharing options when large numbers of people neeed to go to the same locations, particularly late at night.
- More clearly demarcated queuing structures for taxis.
- Abolish queuing for trains, allowing people to board when the train pulls in, as tickets are always checked anyways at a later point.
- Much greater consideration of construction projects and events in terms of the effect they have on public transport users.
In the medium and longer term, lobbying could push for:
- More quality bus corridors and supporting infrastructure.
- Proper bus and coach terminals instead of this ludicrious situation where coaches and buses just pull in at the sides of O'Connell Street.
- More park & ride services.
- More tram, commuter train and metro services.
- New better-quality trains.
- Integration of terminals for public and private operators.
- Much greater consideration of public transport in planning. Imo, there should not be a single new main road built without allocating sufficient space for hypotethical tram lines or quality bus corridors.
I think it would be important that these issues be approached from a party and ideological-netrual perspective (particularly with regard to ideological views in reference to public versus private arguments). This is to ensure maximum appeal to all public transport users.
These are just a few ideas. It would be great if people could contribute more!
If anybody is interested in potentially working with me in lobbying for better public transport, please send me a private message or email me at
o_w_e_n@o_w_e_n_f_e_e_h_a_n.com (without any underscores).
I think pushing for reform of this nature could be an opportunity for people to contribute in a very practical and non-party-political way to building a better quality of life in Ireland for many citizens, in particular for the elderly, the young, and those without a car.
It would also feed into creating a better environment as people would not need to use cars as much if a stronger public transport option existed.
Political parties respond to votes, and in particular to organised groups of voters. In the absence of organised lobby and pressure groups, issues of importance can easily be forgotten, dominated by vested interests, or relegated in favour of other issues.
Consequently, I believe there is a very demonstrable need for organised lobbying for better public transport.
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Originally Posted by owenfeehan
