Eastern Correspondent

Three BusConnects routes in Dublin are changing from today following protests by passengers about the services.

Routes 80, 23 and 24 which run mainly through Chapelizod and Finglas were introduced last October as part of Phase 7 of the BusConnects programme.

Complaints quickly followed about delays, capacity and frequency of the services and the volume of ghost buses disappearing from the schedule.

A number of protests were held in both communities and, before Christmas, the National Transport Authority (NTA) agreed to amend the routes saying the "reliability issues" experienced on the three routes were primarily due to high levels of traffic congestion on the new routes and "driver availability constraints".

Part of the issue with the services was the fact that they had been routed through the Christchurch area which resulted in buses getting caught in traffic congestion.

Some services also left passengers further from the O'Connell Street area than they were used to.

Now the 80, 23 and 24 routes will travel further along the bus corridor on the north quays and bring passengers closer to the O'Connell Bridge area.

NTA Director of Public Transport Services Jeremy Ryan said the temporary changes should resolve the problems being experienced by passengers.

He said: "The time of the year when we launched the service was October, traffic was at its worst.

"This will make a significant difference, we believe, in terms of journey times and the reliability of service.

"More services will run on time and there will be less cancelations because of congestion. Ghost buses quite often happen because of cancelations of services at the last minute.

"That can happen because of unexpected levels of congestion, so you'll certainly see less ghost buses, and the services we do run will run more reliable and more evenly spaced, so there'll be less capacity issues, we anticipate less people not able to get on board a bus.

"We think these changes will make a significant difference in the city centre."

However, some residents remain unhappy with the changes saying they do not deal with all the issues being experienced by passengers in their areas.

Cathy Byrne of the Beneavin Residents Association in Finglas said the amended route still leaves locals cut off from areas.

She said: "The number 9 bus was an excellent bus route that went down Glasnevin Avenue, and it served DCU, four primary schools, two secondary schools and the Na Fianna GAA club. Now we have no link to that area.

"The bus is not servicing three nursing homes and a secondary school. There's a lot of older people in the area and the new bus stop is a distance away.

"The visitors to the nursing home are now arriving by taxis. The buses are coming from the airport and they're coming down full.

"The traffic has increased no end in the area because people now have to drop their children to school and they're also parking their cars in residential areas to get closer to the main [bus] spine. It just doesn't work."

'It just doesn't work’, says Cathy Byrne of the Beneavin Residents Association

Nick Stefanovic, a resident of Chapelizod, said locals also want their old service restored.

"The National Transport Authority have refused to engage with the residents of Chapelizod, Palmerstown and Islandbridge, despite repeated requests over the past four months for engagement and any solution that is being proposed is still being imposed top down on us, without consultation with the locals who use these services every day and know their needs," he said.

The new routes were originally designed to take account of the planned pedestrianisation of College Green and will have to change again when that comes into effect.

At that point, the 80 bus is due to be merged with the 130 route that currently links Clontarf with the city centre as a single cross city service, which the NTA said it expects to begin at some stage in 2027.

The timeline for the redevelopment of College Green is due to be revealed in the coming days, but the NTA said it hopes that by the time they revert back to the contentious routes, things will be different

It said: "Its a temporary arrangement. We hope with the City Council to arrange better bus priority on the sections of the bus route where we were running and we were getting caught in congestion in advance of the construction of the College Green Plaza.

"We'll hopefully have better priority on the section of routes in the west of the city, where we're routing through Bridge Street and High street in advance of coming out of that area."

More details regarding the changes can be found here.

The link to the respective booklets for the changes to Routes 23 and 24 can be accessed here, and Route 80 here.

Eastern Correspondent

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Route 23 is one of three BusConnects routes that will change from today

\u003Cp\u003EA number of protests were held in Finglas and Chapelizod\u003C/p\u003E

\u003Cp\u003ENTA Director of Public Transport Services Jeremy Ryan said the temporary changes should resolve the problems\u003C/p\u003E