AHEAD OF THE next public consultation opening up for the landmark BusConnects project next month, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has put out to tender a contract for the delivery of up to 3.6 million leaflets across the greater Dublin area.

The leaflets and booklets will be delivered to every home and business in the greater Dublin area, including locations in north Wicklow, north Kildare and east Meath.

BusConnects initiatives would see the creation of 230km of dedicated bus lanes along the 16 busiest corridors in Dublin, as well as the complete redesign of the bus network along seven central “spines”.

Over 30,000 people have already had their say on BusConnects through submissions received in the first round of public consultation.

Concerns have been raised after it emerged that some homeowners will lose a portion of their gardens due to the plans.

A number of areas of south Dublin have protested against the NTA plans, with locals claiming it will destroy communities.

Late last month, TheJournal.ie reported that a number of TDs – including one government minister - had written to the NTA to express their own concerns over the plan.

In the case of Mary Mitchell O’Connor, she urged a “rethink” on how the new system would work in her local constituency.

As it progresses to the next stage of going to the public again with revised plans next month, the NTA now intends to deliver information about the plans straight to people’s doors.

In its invitation to tender, it asks for a service provider to deliver booklets and leaflets to every home and business – including premises with “no junk” signs and individual apartments – to the greater Dublin area. 

The NTA estimates there are 600,000 homes and businesses within this area.

It plans to deliver booklets to each of these addresses at least three times over the course of a year, with the possibility for another three runs the year after.

If it follows through for the full two years, it’ll mean 3.6 million deliveries to homes and businesses in and around the capital. 

More information will be provided on the next stage of BusConnects by the NTA next month. It is not envisaged for the bus corridors project to completed until 2027, while the finalisation of the bus network redesign won’t be complete until 2020 at the earliest.