Vol. 555 No. 3
108 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Transport in regard to the commitment given in An Agreed Programme for Government, the specific proposals the Government has for the upgrading of the bus fleets and the provision of bus priorities in Dublin and other cities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18246/02]
In line with the commitment given in the programme for Government, and as outlined in the national development plan, the following progress has been made on improving bus fleet capacity. There has been a 23% increase in Dublin Bus peak hour capacity since the start of the NDP as a result of the delivery of 334 new buses and Bus Éireann has increased peak capacity by 40% on all main corridors into Dublin. The DTO receives a grant from my Department for traffic management and bus priority measures in order to implement a quality bus network throughout the greater Dublin area. Currently, nine QBCs have been implemented, amounting to 98 km of bus priority. Three entire QBCs remain to be developed. Dublin Bus, Dublin City Council and the DTO are collaborating successfully to ensure delivery of targeted QBC services. To date the QBC strategy has been a success. I understand that, since the introduction of QBCs, Dublin Bus patronage on QBC routes has shown a 38% increase overall in the peak period. I expect the DTO and the local authorities to make further progress on bus priority measures in the coming years.
My Department has been supporting the development of quality bus corridors in the main cities outside of Dublin through its representation on the steering committees for land use and transportation studies which are at various stages of completion in Galway, Limerick and Waterford. All these studies deal with the issue of providing bus priority measures. Preliminary studies on two green routes or quality bus corridors in Cork have already been commissioned by the Cork City Council and my Department is currently examining a request for funding from the council for the implementation of these green routes.
Question No. 109 answered with Question No. 75.
