The unbearable stress of sitting for hours in traffic gridlock; delayed journey times like two hours to travel ten miles on a bus in Dublin; the daily grind of long waits at bus stops or train stations; the discomfort of being crammed tight like sardines without a seat on public transport; workers forced to leave for work at 5.30 or 6.00am in order to be able start at 8.00 or 8.30am. Welcome to Ireland in the 21st century, a country that is facing a transport crisis.
The government's spin is these problems are temporary; that they developed all of a sudden as an inevitable consequence of economic growth and will be resolved over the next months and years. For that to happen, a radical change of approach is necessary, but this government and the business establishment are destined to continue with their failed policies. Gridlock looks set to worsen in Dublin but also in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford and many major towns around the country.
Working class people are paying the price for the choice the political establishment made to ditch any pretense at proper planning for people’s housing or transport needs. Instead since the ‘60s they facilitated their business friends through backward and corrupt policies to make billions through land speculation, road building and more recently creating a housing sprawl in many areas. This without the necessary infrastructure has created gridlock. Today’s transport crisis is the product of greed, political corruption and inaction.
The running down of public transport
The transport crisis is just the latest, very poignant illustration that, notwithstanding the economic boom, Irish capitalism and its representatives are incapable of overcoming the country’s historic backwardness and of creating a modern state that provides the public services that people require and expect.
The undermining, commercialisation and privatisation of public transport services and infrastructure has been a key aspect of this crisis. This began in the 1980s but has intensified in recent years. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour and of course the PDs have all presided over the gross under investment and very low subsidies to public transport. Public transport has become less a public service and more a commercial enterprise run on a profit basis. Privatisation has been disastrous. In the case of the B & I Line, it led directly to the introduction of slave wage conditions at Irish Ferries and the recent privatisation of Aer Lingus is just a mechanism of increasing profits for aviation bosses at the expense of workers and the public.
Instead of adopting a forward looking and progressive policy on public transport, this and previous governments have been biased against public transport and favoured the car, truck and roads. While public transport in different European countries is subsidised by anything from 30% to 80%, in Ireland the subsidy is minimal. This was deliberately done in an attempt to manipulate public opinion into supporting privatisation/competition as the only way of improving services. This reliance on the car and the absence of a real public transport system covering the country and the city of Dublin meant that when conditions and transport needs changed dramatically over the last decade, a transport crisis was virtually inevitable.
Increased transport needs
The economic boom that developed in the early 1990s may not have been expected, but it transformed people’s needs and increased the demand for transport. However there is no excuse for the fact that the political establishment ignored many reports which identified the trends and made proposals on transport issues. Their inaction is criminal.
The boom served to increase the population, particularly via migration. Crucially the numbers at work also jumped from 1.1 million in the early 1990s to over 2 million currently. In the 2002 Census there were 650,000 jobs in Dublin city and county. Today that figure is probably 850,000 or possibly more. This means that over the last years there has been a big increase in the number of necessary journeys to work, particularly in Dublin. The pattern of destinations has also tended to change depending on where jobs are located. For example in Dublin, while radial trips into the city are still vital, there has been considerable growth in the demand for journey’s not involving the city centre but more orbital routes, from suburb to suburb. In Dublin the Tallaght/Clondalkin area, Sandyford and Citywest have all become increasingly important workplace destinations.
The growth in the property market is another vital factor. A number of different sources contributed to the property boom. But initially a key factor was the growth in real need for more housing amongst ordinary people. That need was increasingly backed up by cash as the numbers at work and incomes grew.
However just as they abdicated in their responsibility for providing a real public transport system, once again the political establishment instead of organising in a planned way to meet the demand for housing, facilitated their speculator and construction friends to make billions by building the housing sprawl of the last decade. Construction bosses have been allowed to determine willy-nilly how and where cities and towns have developed. Given the bias against public transport, invariably they were allowed do this without any insistence that public transport infrastructure and services be provided at the same time to deal with the population growth and the increased demand for transport in these areas. One mistaken policy compounded another and meant that in areas with substantial new housing, more cars came onto road networks that simply couldn’t cope.
Busier roads in turn became more dangerous for drivers but particularly cyclists and pedestrians alike. While other safety and social factors were also at play, undoubtedly this is one of the reasons why there has been a big increase in the numbers of children being driven to school each morning, which is an important factor in adding to traffic congestion at that time of the day.
The market & private operators – inefficient & expensive
Successive governments did not try to tackle the growing traffic problem or meet people’s transport needs directly through building a real public transport system. But even the measures that they did take, including their road building projects have been undermined by their reliance on the market. They said the carrot of big profits for private companies would be the best mechanism for building the transport infrastructure and operating transport services.
This approach meant the bias against proper public transport has continued (approximately two thirds of the new NDP spending on transport goes to roads, with one third to public transport projects); projects have been delayed; profiteering has caused inefficiencies and massive cost over runs.
Only 50% of projects in the last National Development Plan were actually implemented. There was the massive overspend on roads. The initial road cost was to be €5.6 billion but ended up close to €17 billion! The Port Tunnel was built to the north instead of to the west which would have made it much more accessible generally. It was meant to cost €220 million but the current estimate is that its final cost will be €752 million plus. The southeastern part of the M 50 was completed more than 15 years after the motorway was started. Likewise it had a huge cost overrun. One reason was the deals the state agreed with landowners. The average price they paid per acre was a whopping €750,000 and the highest price they paid was €2 million per acre. A huge speculative profit for some at the expense of the PAYE worker.
The West Link Bridge on the M 50, owned and run by National Toll Roads (NTR) as well as causing massive delays on the M 50 due to the tolling, is an incredible example of a disgusting rip-off. NTR were contracted to build the bridge, which initially cost €38 million. As well as the €400 million they have collected in tolls, in 2003 they were given state grants of €6.4 million. Now the government will use taxpayer’s money to buy the bridge from NTR for another €600 million. We will have paid for this bridge many times over but will still have to pay tolls via a new electronic tolling system.
Government plans – too little too late
Regarding the newer public transport projects, which they’ve been forced to implement in response to the congestion their policies created, the Government is again squandering resources for the benefit of big business, while the transport services for the majority remain very poor.
Buses are the easiest and cheapest form of public transport that can be deployed. If given priority status on main urban or specific urban roads they could in the short term have a crucial role to play in giving people a real alternative to using the car. They have just licensed private operator Citylink (owned by the multi national ComfortdelGro based in Singapore) to compete with Bus Eireann on the lucrative Dublin to Galway and Cork to Galway routes. This undermines the public bus service as Bus Eireann uses money it makes from these routes to subsidise loss-making routes that provide a vital social service. Such services are now under threat.
Having starved Dublin Bus of resources they have now promised them a miserly 100 new buses. But their main policy is to switch to privately operated buses in the city. As a start, the state will supply 100 new buses to private operators at taxpayers’ expense as well as granting them 15% of city routes. The government is using taxpayer’s money to put private operators in an advantageous position from which they will undercut the public bus services by paying staff and drivers less.
Likewise with key rail projects. They supplied Veolia (Connex) with the LUAS trams in 2004 and a €20 million yearly grant on top of the profit they make from fares. While LUAS is popular and shows what could be achieved, it covers very few areas in only one city. There are currently just less than 100 rail points/stations scattered sparely over the Greater Dublin Area (includes Kildare, Meath and Wicklow). As an idea of the type of coverage that a proper rail network should have, in Stockholm, with a similar geographical size and only slightly bigger population, there are 250 rail stations. Again while the individual rail projects in the government’s plan for Dublin, Transport 21, will have an impact in the specific areas, the vast bulk of the city will still be without readily accessible rail services either DART, LUAS or Metro, even if that plan is fully implemented.
Transport 21 (T21) is a watered down version of a previous 2001 plan, Platform for Change. Since it was launched in November 2005 the delivery dates for some key rail projects have been put back even further. Frank Allen of the state sponsored Rail Procurement Agency has raised that if the business plan for Metro West from Ballymun all the way round to Tallaght isn’t clearly established, it might not go ahead. Because T 21 is based on commercial viability as opposed to providing a much-needed service, there are valid questions as to whether it will be fully achieved. It is clear that T 21 is piecemeal and falls woefully short on what people need and what a real public transport system would be able to provide.
For a real public transport system that is run under democratic public ownership
So much for the limited proposals for buses and rail for Dublin but what about the increased bus services that all rural areas, towns and other cities apart from Dublin require? What about the rail or light rail plans for other cities? There is nothing serious in the offing.
The traffic and transport crisis and the plans of the government to privatise public transport are crucial issues for working class people. The only way to provide for the transport needs of the majority and overcome traffic gridlock and its negative impact on people’s health and the environment is by the establishment of a real public transport system in all parts of the country linked to ports and airports, that is publicly owned and controlled.
An integrated network of train, light rail and bus services should cover all major towns and cities. A public transport point should be within five minutes walking distance of any point and it should be serviced at least every five minutes at peak time. Rail transport by its nature can move large numbers, quickly and a network of track and stations at accessible locations would mean people could travel through a city much quicker than currently. Buses servicing rail stations and points, covering other routes and given priority status on roads could move quickly. Such quick and efficient public transport systems operate in some cities in Europe and there is no reason why they couldn’t be established in this country. It would provide people with a reliable alternative and create the basis to overcome the unsustainable over use of cars. Without real and extensive public transport, congestion and pollution will become unbearable. N
The Socialist Party says:
- No profiteering from the crisis in transport. No to Public Private Partnerships and no to franchising or privatisation of bus or rail services.
- Give people a reliable alternative to using the car. For massive state investment to build a real public transport system as the only solution to traffic congestion.
- Nationwide, for an integrated national network of efficient and frequent bus and rail services linked to ports and airports and accessible to all.
- In cities, for bus, light rail and tram network so that everyone is within five minutes walking distance of a transport point that is serviced at least every five minutes at peak time.
- Genuine public consultation regarding the bus services that people require.
- Supply Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus with the thousands of new buses necessary to satisfy the transport needs of the people.
- Free school bus services in all areas.
- In cities, Quality Bus Corridors (QBCs) in as many areas as possible and other appropriate measures to give buses priority status.
- Extensive nationwide and citywide grids of train stations and rail infrastructure to make efficient and frequent rail travel reasonably accessible to all.
- Free and secure park and ride facilities at train stations.
- Scrap all road tolls and take all elements of road infrastructure into public ownership including the West Link Bridge.
- For the building of a basic motorway system to link all major destinations nationally and proper maintenance of the quality and safety standards on existing networks.
- In cities and towns provide safe cycle lanes and pedestrian paths and crossings to and from schools and all housing areas.
- For public control and ownership of transport via genuinely democratic authorities with a majority of representatives from transport employees and the working people who use the service as well as representatives from local and central government.
