Dublin so poorly served by public transport that Luas breakdown sends whole city off the tracks
Dublin so poorly served by public transport that Luas breakdown sends whole city off the tracks - The Labour Party
Labour’s transport spokesperson Ciaran Ahern TD has called out Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s failure to properly resource public transport in the capital.
Questioning Minister O’Donovan in the Dáil today, Deputy Ahern said it is unbelievable that people still don’t know when the Luas will be back working.
Deputy Ahern said:
“Dublin City is so poorly served when it comes to public transport. If one issue arises, commuters are plunged into chaos on their morning trip with no communication or information made available to them.
“It’s incredible that over 24 hours after its breakdown, people still don’t know when the Luas will be back in operation. It’s causing untold chaos for commuters, businesses are concerned about the impact it will have coming up to the Christmas rush, and workers across the city are afraid of running late and being penalised due to our creaking transport infrastructure.
“The fact that one Luas line going down can cause such havoc around the city is indicative of how poorly our capital city is served by public transport.
“Contrary to what the residents of Dartmouth Square think, we need more connectivity – not less. It is absolutely vital that the MetroLink would serve the South of the City and the South West in time. We are far too over reliant on too few public transport links as it stands. This past 24 hours is the perfect way to illustrate this.
“With so many people pushed further and further outside of the city, we need to ensure that the outskirts of Dublin are well served with transport options, and that the connection services are reliable when they get into the city centre.
“Instead of addressing this, we’ve seen this Government delay the shovel-ready Dart+ South West, a public transport link that could go a long way to addressing the chronic traffic congestion around the M50 and M7.
“Instead of Fine Gael representatives taking videos alongside the transport infrastructure that is creaking at the seams, what we need to see is meaningful action from the Minister for Transport with the backing of his Government colleagues.”