Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 February 2019
67. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he has received reports from the NTA on the performance of a company (details supplied) that recently won the tender for certain Dublin Bus routes; his views on the operation of these routes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6713/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 it is a statutory function of the National Transport Authority (NTA) to determine the appropriate mix of directly awarded and competitively tendered bus services. Arising from this, the NTA undertook a number of competitive procurement processes in 2017 and selected Go-Ahead as the preferred bidder in the competition to operate 24 routes (23 existing plus 1 new) in the Dublin Metropolitan area. As the Deputy is aware, the phasing in of these new services commenced in September 2018 and concluded on 20 January with the transfer of nine routes.
The NTA does not regularly provide operational performance reports to my Department in relation to individual contracts that it has with transport operators.
In the case of Go-Ahead, I have been advised by the NTA that it has reviewed punctuality performance for the period 20th January 2019 to 4th February 2019 (i.e. the data it has to hand since the latest round of service transfers from Dublin Bus to Go-Ahead). From that data, on-time punctuality performance has improved overall by approximately 2% on the Go-Ahead routes compared to the same period last year, when they were operated by Dublin Bus.
There are, however, variations by route and it is notable that the most recent service transfers are performing less well punctuality-wise. This repeats a pattern seen in previous phases of service transfers, where drivers new to a route initially tend to adopt a conservative driving manner, resulting in some delays compared to schedule.
In terms of passenger use, after a period of adjustment as passengers familiarise themselves with timetable changes, growth in passenger use has generally been positive, in particular where services have been enhanced compared to Dublin Bus timetables.
The NTA intends to ensure that customers will experience improved service levels across all of the routes in question, and it will achieve this through a variety of means:
- The quality of service is measurable and, therefore, the NTA has set out in the contract with the new operator, the customer service levels that are expected. The NTA will use the contract terms to drive up levels of customer service.
- All services operated under the contract will continue to be regulated by the NTA as they are today. These means that LEAP, Free Travel Pass, Real Time Information, National Journey Planner etc. will all continue to operate on these services.
- The NTA has the statutory powers to determine fare levels, and the NTA will continue using its fares determination process to rationalise and improve the fare structure across all the different operators in the regulated bus market, including the new operator.
Public transport passenger journeys are growing, with Dublin Bus experiencing strong growth which is forecast to continue. That growth will allow Dublin Bus continue to expand its services in tandem with the roll-out of Go-Ahead's routes.
We are always looking for ways to improve our public transport services and the NTA conducting an open, competitive process as part of providing enhanced and expanded services for passengers, and then monitoring and implementing its contacts, is part of that improvement process.
