DUBLIN BUS has claimed it was ordered by the Department of Transport to cut services to the new town of Adamstown in west Dublin, and that it now cannot restore them.
The State-owned bus company which was running the services to Adamstown via Lucan, said it was ordered to cut back on bus numbers on the route in October 2007.
This was after privately-owned competitor Circle Line complained that Dublin Bus was using taxpayers' money to force it out of business on its Lucan route.
Circle Line ultimately withdrew its service between Lucan-Celbridge and Nutgrove entirely last June, while continuing to allege its route was saturated "by a large number of Government-funded buses, the operation of which was being subsidised by the tax payer".
However, in a report to the Oireachtas Committee on Transport which meets next week, Dublin Bus claims it had instigated three new services from Adamstown, via Lucan, beginning in September 2006. Following the order to drop them in October 2007, the company was forced to serve Adamstown via Clondalkin and the Long Mile Road which resulted in longer journey times.
The report also notes that the Department of Transport has raised issues about three other "auxiliaries" which continue to operate in the morning peak on the route.
Auxiliaries are buses which are not scheduled on the timetable, but which are brought into service alongside scheduled services when passenger numbers dictate a single vehicle would not be enough. Dublin Bus has told the department that as these three buses operated prior to the commencement of the Circle Line operation in 2003, their continued operation "was in order".
Dublin Bus does not intend to run these auxiliary services at times other than peak, as it says it would require extra funding to run them full time. In its letter to the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Dublin Bus says "the level of funding received by Dublin Bus is low by European standards".
Following the withdrawal of Circle Line, Dublin Bus has said it is not possible to further develop its service on the corridor without more funding. In any event the company notes it has not been possible to get approval from the Department of Transport for improvements, since it was ordered to reduce the service.
The news is likely to come as a disappointment to the Oireachtas Committee, according to committee member Senator Pascal Donohoe. Mr Donohoe told The Irish Times that the report "clearly showed the ones to suffer out of this are the commuters and the committee is right to investigate what is going on".
Dublin Bus has increased its fleet by more then 100 buses since 2006 and these have been deployed on the Malahide, Ballymun, Blanchardstown, South Clondalkin, Tallaght and North Wicklow corridors.
The Oireachtas Committee meets on Wednesday.
