Speech by the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen T.D. Monday 19 February 2007 at the Bus Éireann announcement of plans for improved bus services in the Waterford area

Date: 19 February 2007

Mayor of Waterford, Councillor O'Neill; Chairman of CIE, Dr John Lynch; Ray Kearney, Services Manager, Bus Éireann (Waterford); Tim Daly, Area Manager, (Waterford), John Clancy, Chief Architect, CIE, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.

I am delighted to be here today to announce with Bus Éireann both the proposals for new and improved bus services in the Waterford area and the future developments at Waterford Train Station. Thanks to all of you for providing such detailed presentations.

Now is a good time for transport infrastructure not alone in the South East, but also around the entire country. Thanks to the combined work of the people of this country and the policies of this Government, Ireland is now one of the world's most successful economies. It needs first-rate transport infrastructure if it is to sustain and build on that success. This year alone, under our transport programme, Transport 21, the Government is investing €777 million in public transport a 58% increase on last year's estimate and over €1.5 billion in the national roads programme. People deserve the best possible services and with this funding, major upgrade projects are underway or planned, as we see here today, on national road, rail and bus services.

On the roads front, the 24 kms Waterford to Knocktopher section of the M9/ N9 and the 23 kms N25 Waterford City bypass, are underway with completion dates of 2009 and 2010 respectively. (The sod was turned just last week (12 February) in Mullinavat on the Waterford to Knocktopher section). The other two sections of the N9 are due to start construction in 2008 and due to be completed in 2010. This means that we will have a motorway running from Dublin to Waterford by 2010.

Railway services to and from Waterford have also been improved in recent years with over €40 million of Government funding invested in the route by Irish Rail over the past decade. Services on the Waterford/Dublin route have increased from four to six each way in the past three years. I welcome the fact that Irish Rail intend to provide two hourly services when the 150 new rail cars, which begin to arrive in March, come on stream. These new carriages, which will service the Waterford route and other intercity routes, will add significantly to passenger comfort. I am glad that Irish Rail, with Exchequer funding of over €600,000 this year, is now moving to undertake detailed planning for the upgrade of Waterford Railway Station and I am delighted that John Clancy, CIE's Chief Architect, has been with us this afternoon to bring us through the planned improvements for Plunkett Station.

The Bus Éireann development proposals i.e - for 35 replacement and additional buses; to extend the range of city services and commuter services; for extensive bus priority measures, - are wide-ranging and I welcome the ambition underpinning them. They rightly reflect the Waterford Planning, Land Use and Transport Study and the Waterford City Development plan.

Bus services are and will remain a vital part of this country's overall transport system. This is recognised in Transport 21 which provides for major investment in bus services, bus priority measures and park and ride facilities over the lifetime of Transport 21.

We have also heard today that Bus Éireann is currently examining the potential for the introduction in our cities including Waterford, of 'BRT' (Bus Rapid Transit), a system of "bus trams" or "streetcars" popular in the US, Canada and in a growing number of European cities. I look forward shortly to viewing the 12-metre streetcar, just parked outside on the quay, which has been manufactured by Wrights in Ballymena, Co Antrim. The attractiveness of Bus Rapid Transit lies in its potential to deliver a very high frequency service at a fraction of the cost of designing, building and maintaining a full-scale tram system.

Bus Éireann currently operates a wide range of city, rural and local, and expressway services in Waterford. From 2000 to 2006, there has been a 17% increase in its departure services. Bus Éireann's current fleet at Waterford comprises nearly 60 buses serving six routes in Waterford City (such as the route number 360 out to Tramore, and the 3c from WIT, Browne's Road to the city centre); 24 routes in the Waterford area and seven expressway routes from Waterford to Cork/Tralee, Limerick and Galway, Dublin via Carlow, Dublin via Gorey and Athlone via Carlow/Kilkenny. Twenty thousand students are catered for each day under the school transport scheme.

Almost the entire Waterford city fleet is comprised of low floor fully accessible buses.

Exchequer funding has, I am glad to say, already been approved for some of the new buses proposed by Bus Éireann as part of the funding package of €50 million approved by Government last September for the purchase of new buses by Bus Éireann for deployment throughout the country. In this tranche of new buses, 13 new vehicles will be allocated for the Waterford area. The funding of the balance - the additional 22 extra buses proposed by Bus Éireann for Waterford - has been under consideration by my Department in conjunction with Bus Éireann. I am delighted to announce today that this extra bus requirement will be provided for in order for Bus Éireann to carry out their three-year development plan for the Waterford area as outlined by Tim Daly, Area Manager, here today.

As Bus Éireann has correctly pointed out the upgrading of bus services is not only about new buses. Equally important is the provision of bus priority measures to ensure that bus services for the passenger are punctual and reliable and that maximum benefit is derived from the bus fleet.

I am delighted therefore that Waterford City Council is making good progress in advancing the planning and design of bus priority measures and consultation has been taking place with Councillors in the city on the subject.

I am happy to have approved the funding requested by Waterford City Council for this year to complete the initial detailed design for bus priority measures on the Dunmore Road from the Regional Hospital to the city centre, and on the N25 from the Inner Ring Road to the Rice Bridge.

I know that the City Council envisage that, following the completion of the initial detailed design of bus priority measures, there will be a full public consultation for all interested parties in the city regarding proposed bus priority measures. I will be pleased to approve funding for such measures in the city, which emerge following this public consultation. Bus priority measures will deliver better movement of buses through the city centre including more reliable journey times and more dependable arrival and departure times. This will make our gateway city a more attractive place in which to live, to work and to shop.

And this brings me on to an important point about providing not alone good time-efficient public transport but also sustainable public transport.

The Government's Ministerial Task Force, of which I am a member, will be preparing a new climate change strategy before Easter. This will be a comprehensive plan demanding ambition and action across the economy.

A sustainable transport action plan will be prepared as part of this overall strategy. It will address a range of issues and forecast how the transport sector will significantly contribute to reductions in carbon emissions to 2020. The public transport sector will be expected to show strong leadership in this regard and I am prepared to support proposals to move the public transport fleet to a more sustainable basis as speedily as it is feasible. I have asked Dr. Lynch, Chairman of CIE, as An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, TD, announced on Saturday in Galway, to move all Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus existing fleet to a 5% bio-diesel blend and to plan to achieve a 30% bio-diesel blend in all new buses.

Also today in Dublin, the German-Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce is holding an information seminar on a new pilot initiative - Biofuels for Transport. This is the first pilot project of its kind between the Department of Transport and the German-Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The project, which has received funding under Transport 21, will involve practical use of pure plant oil among key transport users, such as road hauliers. The intention of the pilot is to demonstrate a viable, replicable green transport model for Ireland.

We need to promote and facilitate a switch in transport mode from the private car to public transport, thereby reducing fossil fuel consumption and green house gas emissions in the transport sector.

Conclusion

Progress is being made on a number of fronts in the upgrade of Waterford's transport infrastructure. Upgrade projects already completed combined with those currently in progress and in planning, will ensure that Waterford is well placed to continue to thrive as a national gateway driving development in the region.

Thank you all very much.

ENDS