PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON six proposed bus corridors in and out of Dublin city centre commenced today as the National Transport Authority presses ahead with its ambitious BusConnects project. 

In November, the NTA announced consultation on the first four of these bus corridors in its plan to transform Dublin’s bus network which proposes 230 kilometres of bus lanes and 200 kilometres of cycle lanes on 16 corridors in and out of the city centre. 

Across the 16 proposed corridors that would provide continuous bus lanes, the NTA has said that around 1,300 properties would be affected.

Alongside continuous bus lanes will be dedicated cycle routes. To make way for these, however, it will necessitate the cutting down of trees, a loss of parking spaces and some property owners will lose a bit of their front garden.

The public is now being asked for its say on the emerging preferred routes for a further six bus corridors. They are as follows:

• Liffey Valley to the City Centre
• Clondalkin to Drimnagh
• Greenhills to the City Centre
• Tallaght to Terenure
• Kimmage to the City Centre
• Rathfarnham to the City Centre

Under the NTA’s BusConnects plan, most property owners will only lose around 1-2 metres of land. “But it’s fair to say that others are affected slightly more,” NTA deputy chief executive Hugh Creegan said back in November. 

On average, property owners will receive €25,000 in compensation but they may be entitled to more and the NTA has pledged that where lands are acquired, it will ensure new landscaping and replanting of gardens and reinstatement of driveways.

In cases where private and public walls or fencing is removed, this will be rebuilt and/or replaced.

The cost of providing all of this will be separate to the compensation provided. 

In terms of the trees that will be cut down, a “comprehensive replanting programme” will be initiated with the aim of planting more trees than were removed. 

Consultation on the network redesign – which proposes 16 high-speed radial corridors throughout the city with 11 orbital routes – concluded in August, following a series of public meetings held by the NTA throughout the summer with a revised plan due to be published in 2019. 

Along the corridors announced for public consultation today, annual passenger growth in Dublin Bus services has increased by up to 19% in the period 2015 to 2018, according to the NTA.

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“However, the millions of passenger journeys taking place on each of these corridors are facing increasing congestion with delays being frequently experienced by commuters,” a statement said.

In total, 665 property owners potentially affected by today’s announcement have been notified by post, according to the NTA, and one-to-one meetings will be offered in the coming weeks with those potentially impacted.

The public have until 29 March to give their view on the six proposed bus corridors announced today. 

Public consultation on the final six corridors will begin in mid-February and will run until the end of April.

With reporting from Sean Murray.