Councillors 'frustration' after meeting with transport chiefs

A meeting that took place this morning between local councillors and transport chiefs to address the ongoing service crisis that is leaving commuters stranded due to no show buses has been described as “frustrating."

All 40 county councillors sat down with Bus Eireann and NTA executives on Monday ahead of the full Meath County Council meeting.

An array of areas in the county are facing challenges due to unreliable services but none more so than the 103 that services the Ashbourne and Ratoath route to and from Dublin City Centre.

However, not enough time was allocated for the meeting in order for issues to be thrashed out in any meaningful way, that’s according to Ratoath Fianna Fail Cllr Caroline O’Reilly who last month started conducting a survey of commuters in the Ratoath and Ashbourne areas on their experiences with public transport.

"This was an incredibly short meeting that began with a lot of tension,” said Cllr O’Reilly.

"The issues are complex and deserve a more district led approach,” she added.

“There was not enough time to absorb the information, each Cllr was given just three minutes to talk which is not enough considering the complexity of the issues.

"I managed to get my specific points across and to reiterate the importance of the data obtained from the surveys, they are the voices of customers and their lived experience and suggestions on how the services should improve and this must be paid attention to.

"I understand that there are issues experienced on the side of Bus Eireann with resources and staffing and so forth."

O’Reilly said she raised her key issues in relation to Ratoath and Ashbourne who share a bus route to Dublin at peak travel times.

"Both are growing commuter towns, the fastest and biggest in Meath,” she said.

“It's becoming difficult for people to justify housing growth if this issue is not resolved,”added the Ratoath councillor.

"Existing residents are up in arms about large scale developments in Ashbourne and Ratoath in particular and the service not improving along with it.

“It's something that really has to be moving and improving alongside housing growth. This is essential infrastructure that must improve quickly and needs to be incorporated into planning applications.

The issues are affecting employment and 3rd level education according to O’Reilly who said:

“People with disabilities are left on the side of the road, there are 4-5 cars outside many houses as they do not use the transport contributing to congestion on roads which is a big problem.

"These towns need separate bus routes and if we started with looking at this change for peak times to begin with this would be the beginning of a broader solution but would be a very quick fix.

"I have spoken with Transport Minister Lawless over the weekend an he has made a representation to the NTA and it is being prioritised at ministerial level this week.

'I am meeting with the NTA and Bus Eireann separately this month as they would like to study data from my survey to assist with the improvement of services in the Ratoath & Ashbourne Districts.”

Meanwhile Sinn Fein Cllr Helen Meyer said:

"It started off with quite a heated debate because they told us they didn’t have enough time to answer the questions we submitted so that was disappointing for everyone.

“One of the questions I had was regarding the number of buses regularly breaking down. We were told the fleet of buses are not old, that they are 2017/2018 which is hard to believe due to how often they break down.

“Another question I had was why did they remove the private buses that they put on to increase capacity, obviously this costs them money and they don’t want to do that but there were two days in a row last week where buses were cancelled at peak times causing absolute chaos for people.

"One of the things that I find frustrating is that they make major route changes especially on the 103 and how they communicate that change is not sufficient, they need to put those changes on the bus stops, in the buses so that people are aware."

The NTA AND Bus Eireann vowed to return comprehensive answers to the councillor’s questions within two weeks.