Dublin Bus plans for the 42b, 27, 27b and other routes in this area are nothing more than an attack on a vital public service. Far from their claim that it is about improving efficiency and reliability, these changes are really about cost cutting and cutting back services. In the last year and a half Dublin Bus have cut almost 200 buses from its fleet and laid off hundreds of drivers and other workers.
The latest round of cuts, under the guise of the Network Review will do nothing to improve the services we need and rely on.
The changes in North Dublin and across the city mean;
* Removing bus routes from estates they have serviced for decades and forcing people to walk further for a bus. This will save the company time and effort but will discourage people, especially older people from using the service.
* Merging routes from the North side with South side routes. In theory this might sound good, with easier access to other parts of the city, but in reality it means the new bigger merged route will have far fewer buses operating on it than the previously two separate routes did. It means a huge reduction in the number of actual buses operating,
* Cutting or eliminating smaller routes. Routes that do not make a profit, but provide a vital service, face being axed, as the company seek to reduce its costs.
* While estates built across the city are without any bus service, this Government has watched as hundreds of buses are scrapped.
Bus cuts are just part of the picture. Across in transport, health, education and social services, we are been told we must accept cuts, cuts and more cuts. To pay for the bail out of banks we are told we must slash our services, pay and welfare.
This is the FF/Green party legacy to working class people. But the alternative FG/Lab coalition will not make things any better. Labour have stated they will not reverse the cuts. So while they can attack cuts in services, they have no plan to reverse them. FG are even worse, they want to sell off state companies like CIE to help pay back the debts of our bankers and speculators. But there is an alternative – across the country, the United Left Alliance are standing candidates offering a real alternative to the polices of slashing our public services.
John Lyons, People before Profit- a part of the United Left Alliance, is standing in Dublin North Central
Alongside other candidates like Joe Higgins MEP and Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett, he is standing for a radical alternative that will make those who caused the economic crisis pay for it.