Vol. 563 No. 1
476 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Transport the extent to which the Bus Éireann fleet has been updated or upgraded; the extent to which the fleet is sufficient to meet requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7444/03]
Bus Éireann has taken delivery of 228 buses to date under the national development plan. The purchase of these buses has led to a very substantial improvement in services both in provincial cities and the greater Dublin area. Peak capacity has been increased by at least 40% on all main corridors into Dublin.
In recent years, Bus Éireann has converted its entire regular urban bus fleets in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford to low-floor wheelchair accessible vehicles and the size of the fleet in each city has been expanded. In addition, the company is operating some twenty low-floor wheelchair-accessible buses on a number of local rural services and has six low-floor buses on the Ashbourne-Dublin commuter route.
