Chaos for commuters
Dear sir - To go by some of the comments overheard at
Busaras on Friday evening last, you could well believe
that riot and even revolution are in the air, as
disappointed and exhausted Meath commuters poured through
the doors only to be turned back from yet another bus
filled to its capacity.
The lengthy queues for route 109 (serving Dunshaughlin,
Navan and Kells) are now a regular occurrence on Friday
evenings, yet there is little evidence that the general
problem of under-supply of buses is being seriously
addressed at a political level.
And this is not the only problem affecting bus-users who
commute daily to Dublin from a county that has seen an
unprecedented growth in population in recent years.
The absence of bus stations in the major towns, the
absence of park-and-ride facilities, the lack of a
sufficient supply of sheltered and lighted bus stops,
coupled with the under-provision for buses to meet the
growing demand along the N3 route (and indeed other
routes in central Meath) are real human problems which
need urgently to be addressed, along with the need to
prioritise and bring forward the reopening of the rail
link to Navan and beyond.
When, in the face of increasingly congested roads and an
almost permanently gridlocked M50, commuters are being
urged to use public transport as much as possible (and to
do the right thing by the environment), then everything
should be done to make that public transport not only
available, but also attractive, user-friendly, regular
and reliable.
TDs, councillors, planners, auctioneers, entrepreneurs
and developers, and those who have responsibility in
these matters, should spend some time in the shoes of the
average commuter in the Greater Dublin Area and
experience what is going on a daily basis.
Just as in the areas of health and education provision
(both locally and nationally), there is a need now for
radical action, authority and joined-up thinking in
relation to transport and planning. There is real human
suffering out there and the situation is fast becoming
unsustainable.
We may be a wealthy country, but what quality of life is
there for those people who - in the absence of employment
opportunities close to home, or affordable housing close
to their employment - have to commute long hours every
day to work and study?
What quality of life is there for their families and
communities? What quality of life for the residents of
rat-runs and congested villages and towns? We may be
victims of our own success, as the chair of the
Oireachtas Committee stated recently on RTE, but we are
also victims of incompetence and greed, and a disjointed
transport and development planning system that is lacking
in overall vision and authority.
Yours,
Julitta Clancy,
Parsonstown,
Batterstown.
© The Meath Chronicle, 30th. December 2006.
