The following is the text of the Terenure Residents' Association submission in response to the revised BusConnects plan as it affects our area. You can read details of the revised plan on the BusConnects website here, or download the leaflet here (although printing this out may be a challenge).
You are invited to make your own submissions, which must be in by Tuesday 3 December, to consultations@busconnects.ie
Dublin BusConnects Plan –
Submission by Terenure Residents Association
November 2019
Terenure Residents Association represents about 750 homes close to, and south of, Terenure Cross. Many of our residents are elderly and depend on the bus service for their local transportation requirements. They will be severely inconvenienced by withdrawal of services on some roads, by having to change buses and by greater distance between stops. These are very serious concerns for us, and we ask that they be fully considered in your final plan.
We made a submission on the original network plan in September 2018. A copy of this is attached. While the proposed service through the area is somewhat improved on what was in that plan, we are disappointed that many of the concerns we expressed in 2018 have not been considered. We comment as follows.
Bushy Park Road
This road has had a service for over 80 years and there is
no service in the current plan. Over the 80 years since the service was introduced, many new houses were built, particularly in the Meadowbank estate, the High School was opened and the MS Centre was established. The proposal in your 2018 plan was for an hourly one way looped service which was obviously useless, and has now been dropped. Nothing else was put in its place.
We suggest that one of the Rathfarnham A Spine routes could easily be diverted to run to Rathgar via Bushy Park Road instead of Terenure Road East, similar to the 15B at present.
Access to the St. Stephens Green Area
We noted in our 2018 submission our concern about the continued
lack of a service to the St. Stephens Green area. This has not been addressed in the current plan.
We suggest that two of the A spine routes, one from each of the Rathfarnham Road and the Templeogue Road routes, could be rerouted to go via Earlsfort Terrace etc., as proposed for the 10, 11and 12 routes.
Terenure Road West
We are disappointed that the new proposal does not provide a direct service from Terenure Road West to the City Centre. The proposed route No. 24 is noted but its route to the City is very long and it will not provide an adequate service for schools etc.
Route S4
This service terminates at UCD. We suggested in our last submission that it be extended to the DART at Blackrock. This has not been done. An extension, even to Sydney Parade, would do for access to the DART.
Route A4
We are pleased to note that this route is extended to Nutgrove. Could it be extended further to Dundrum Luas station. The proposed A2 route to Dundrum is very long.
Office Workers
Very many people work in the Financial Services Centre and in offices along the South Quays to Ringsend. The through services to these areas now provided by the 15A and 15B services will be lost. We would like to see something replace it. Would it not be possible to arrange for the proposed
318 service to be extended on a loop to take in these areas and be increased in frequency to cater for their requirements. Some study may be required to establish actual needs.
Schools
It is very important that school going children do not have to change buses. Studies should be carried out to determine the present pattern of journeys undertaken by children going to and from school and the final plan should ensure minimum disruption to this pattern. It is often the case that parents select schools, and even the location of their homes, because of an available bus service to schools; This particularly applies in our area to the loss of the 15A route.
Service Frequency
Most of the existing services to the City have travelled a long way before reaching Terenure Buses are regularly all full at morning peak times before they reach the Terenure area, The proposed frequencies in some cases are no improvement. For example, the Templeogue Road spine will have10 buses per hour which is very much fewer than the 18 buses at present in the 7.00 to 8.00am. period between the 15, 49 and 65 routes. We would also ask that extra buses be provided which will start at points along the routes to cater for passengers in the areas closer to the city, such as Terenure.
