PROTESTS OVER 46A AND OTHER BUS CUTS CONTINUE TODAY AS DUBLIN BUS ADDRESS COUNCIL

LAST SATURDAY PROTEST SUCCESSFULLY ‘KIDNAPS’ 46A AND BRINGS IT BACK THROUGH FARM

Residents of the Monkstown Farm and Stradbrook areas will assemble outside Dun Laoghaire Co. Council this evening (Mon Nov 1st) at 4.50pm to protest at the removal of the 46a bus from the Monkstown Farm area and other cuts to the 4a and 746 bus services.

Dublin Bus representatives will attend the Council’s transport area committee tonight to discuss local bus services and the new city-wide Dublin Bus network review, which will see 90 buses removed from the city fleet leading to cut backs in a wide range of areas across the city.

Dublin Bus’s attendance at tonight’s meeting follows the recent passing of a motion proposed by Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit Alliance) condemning the cuts and calling for Dublin Bus to be brought before the Council.

Tonight’s protest is the latest of a series of protests in an on-going campaign by local residents aimed at forcing Dublin Bus to restore the 46a to Monkstown Farm and reverse the cuts to the 4a and 746 services.

Lat Saturday (Oct 30th), more than 100 residents – many of them elderly – surrounded two 46a’s at Kill O the Grange, preventing them following the new 46a route and escorting them for 2km along their traditional route through Monkstown Farm.

These Saturday protests are set to continue over the coming weeks. The campaign has now also collected almost 2000 signatures on a petition calling for the reversal of the cuts to local bus services.

Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett and a delegation of local residents also recently met with Senior Dublin Bus officials to urge them re-consider the cuts and changes to local bus services and to serve notice of their intention to continue protests. As yet however, Dublin Bus has refused to accede to residents demands – stating only that the situation was under review.

Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett, who is helping residents with the campaign said: “With the winter months now approaching this matter is becoming very urgent. Hundreds of particularly elderly people but also younger kids will not be able to walk in the cold and dark the considerable distance to the new bus route. Dublin Bus is literally cutting off the lifeline to hundreds of our most vulnerable citizens who have been loyal users of this service for decades. It’s immoral.

In our meeting with Dublin Bus, it became clear that these cuts and changes are ultimately being driven by government policy and the totally inadequate funding of public transport. Elderly, disabled and very young people are becoming the victims of cuts caused by a bankrupt government, whose priority is to bail out bankers at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens and the vital public services on which they depend.

The new services and timetables that Dublin Bus say will replace the older services are also just not working. We have had literally hundreds of reports of buses simply not arriving or arriving 50 minutes or an hour late. These are not just isolated incidents, they are happening because the new timetables are based on completely unrealistic and impossible journey times, which the buses cannot meet. Dublin Bus have arbitrarily allowed much shorter journey times to compensate for the reduced number of buses on routes but the buses simply cannot do these times.

The Dun Laoghaire area was one of the first areas to see the implementation of this new city wide review. So, now as the review is rolled out across the rest of the city in the coming weeks, we can expect to see similar hard-ship and chaos inflicted on other bus users across the city.

The residents of Monkstown Farm are determined to keep up their fight to restore proper bus services to their area, and hope to link up with communities elsewhere in the city as the cut backs are implemented in other areas.

At tonight’s protest and all our recent protests, one of the main slogans has been: “Bail out the people not the bankers” and that is the absolute truth of this matter. Ordinary vulnerable people are being sacrificed to pay for the outrageous bail-out of the bankers that have wrecked our economy. It has to stop.”

For more info/confirmation:

Richard Boyd Barrett 086-7814520

N.B. local residents and bus users are also available for interview/quotes if required.