Plenty of publicity these days about the five new quality bus corridors planned by Dublin Bus. Years behind schedule as it is, the Margin hopes the services will improve commuting life in the west and north city.

Still, caution is sensible. Travel times may well improve, but the initiative might also lose steam. For example, nobody denies the vaunted QBC on the 46A route has been successful in the south city. Yet little is heard about its westward equivalent to Lucan.

That's because journey times have disimproved significantly. No joke. "Travel time on the route is now at 1 1/4 hours and no-one is happy," writes Paddy Doherty, business development manager at Dublin Bus, in a staff magazine. Journey times were reduced to 40 minutes from 65 minutes when the QBC was introduced in 1997, but the Liffey Valley development changed the road system for the worse. Seems the ABC of that QBC needs fixin' - and fast.