Sir, - Your reporter Tim O'Brien flatters me by describing me as among the most vocal of QBC critics on the basis of one letter to your columns (News Features, August 28th). However, he does make some pertinent points.
May I just correct one impression: it is not the "quality corridor" that I want extended to Malahide, it is a quality bus service. The bus service which is designated the "Malahide Road flyer" may indeed transport 5,180 people from Clare Hall to the Custom House in the peak; but (a) Clare Hall is not "near Malahide" - it is five miles away with no "park & ride" facility; (b) it does not fly along the QBC but diverts into another housing estate to pick up people who should have their own service; and (c) the Custom House terminal means that those who require (say) the Grafton Street/Stephen's Green area must get another bus and buy another ticket.
The bus service I quoted (in Kent) operates only every hour, but it operates regularly. At all main stops there is a note of the minutes past each hour - if this says "17" then there will be a bus at 17 minutes past the hour, and I never waited more than five or six minutes. By contrast I have waited 40 minutes for a Malahide service that operates twice an hour (outside peaks), which is not the same as every half-hour.
I notice the other QBCs still leave two lanes for other traffic, which allows some overtaking. By contrast ours, as I said, reduces a main road to the level of a country lane. Could we at least confine this waste of expensive road capacity to the directional peak periods? Any other constructive ideas? And please, Sir, don't bother to print the sarcastic comments that add nothing to the debate. - Yours, etc.,
W. J. Murphy, Malahide, Co Dublin.