Dublin Bus To Leave Ballymun Residents Stranded

Local Labour Councillor John Lyons has criticised Dublin Bus’s proposed changes to its Ballymun bus service. Over the past year Dublin Bus has been carrying out a review of its entire bus network throughout the City. As part of this, Dublin Bus intends to combine bus routes 13 and 13a into one bus route (No. 13), which will run from Ikea, Ballymun to Clondalkin. The new route 13 will no longer serve Sillogue, Coultry and Shangan.


According to Cllr. John Lyons, “ this new proposed route is unacceptable as it will no longer service three of the four residential areas in Ballymun. Dublin Bus’s proposals are meeting the needs of the company, rather than the public that it is there to serve. There are Senior Citizens’ complexes in both Sillogue and Coultry who are now expected to walk to the main street if they wish to travel by bus.”
Cllr. Lyons stated that the public consultation period for this is far too short and started at the most inappropriate time possible. “ Dublin Bus opened its one month consultation period on the 23rd December; a time when people are preparing for Christmas and have things other than proposed changes to bus routes on their mind. I think this was very inconsiderate of Dublin Bus and I have requested that the consultation period be extended to allow people time to have their say”

“Although I understand the concept of a more direct bus service, I think this is really a fancy name to cover up the fact that Dublin Bus has made drastic cut backs to its services due to a lack of government funding and falling passenger numbers. In 2009, 120 buses were taken out of service from the Dublin Bus fleet and another 90 in 2010.”

In response to the proposed changes to the bus route 13 and 13a, Cllr Lyons has urged local residents to contact Dublin Bus and have their say. “ I will writing to Dublin Bus expressing my dissatisfaction with its Ballymun bus route proposals and I urge local residents to do the same”