Conor Faughnan airbrushing history

OTK

Letter from Mr Faughnan on behalf of the AA explaining why he always thought the N11 QBC was a great idea he just thought it would work better with various improvements.

Irish Times Letters 26-feb-07 wrote:

Madam, - Your Editorial of February 20th on the HGV management strategy refers to the debate surrounding the Stillorgan quality bus corridor in 1999 and says the AA at the time "campaigned vociferously against its introduction". I submit that this is not entirely fair.

The AA, then as now, supported QBCs but was extremely disappointed that critical aspects such as integrated ticketing, real-time bus information, park-and-ride sites and quality bus shelters were not being provided. These aspects are important in offering car users an attractive alternative.

The Irish Times Editorial of August 23rd, 1999 described our criticisms as "cogent" and said that their force must be acknowledged.

The Stillorgan QBC has been extremely successful, and like all good transport initiatives this means that everyone has benefited. Most of the credit for this must go to Dublin Bus. But unfortunately those other aspects of a QBC still have not been provided, and without them the excellent service is still less than it should be.

but what's all this then? An article by Conor Faughan when the N11 was being introduced predicting it would fail by lowering overall passenger numbers for the route and greatly increasing car journey times.
http://www.aainsurance.ie/news/article.asp?news_Id=249

Quality Bus Corridor On Donnybrook - Stillorgan Route Will Be Traffic Disaster


The proposed Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) on Leeson Street, Donnybrook and Stillorgan Road is a traffic disaster waiting to happen. It is deeply flawed and will worsen the congestion on Dublin's southside rather than improve it, according to the AA. "This corridor will cause enormous tailbacks and will add 30 minutes to journey times at rush hour because it will force all traffic except buses into a single lane through Donnybrook", said Conor Faughnan, AA Public Affairs Manager, "This will prove catastrophic from September when holidays are over and schools reopen". The AA calls on the Government to intervene with Dublin Corporation and have the opening postponed until all the necessary facilities are provided on the route to make it work properly. ...

Ongoing observation by AA Roadwatch shows that in the dark mornings of Autumn and Winter the tailback for traffic entering Donnybrook village in the mornings routinely reaches back as far as RTE. Cut the capacity of Donnybrook in half, as the Bus Corridor is set to do, and that tailback will reach beyond UCD, increasing journey times for that two-mile length of road from 30 mins to 50 mins...

The AA says that buses do not have an automatic right to privileged road space. QBCs are only deserving of support if they make an overall improvement to the efficiency of a corridor without imposing an unreasonable burden on other road users. ..

"Not enough has been done for car users; they are being treated appallingly and little or no thought has been given to fulfilling their needs." Says Faughnan.

The result of the N11 QBC was a huge increase in the number of people per hour carried along the route. Morning peak journey times by car from Foxrock church to Leeson street averaged 31:34 in 2004 while Faughnan predicted that a third of this route from UCD to Donnybrook village would take 50 minutes alone.

Conor ne regrette rien.

jesus_thats_gre

Was he not say that from a traffic perspective that it would fail. i.e. increase tailbacks.

DerekP11

He's the barry Kenny of cars.:D