Performance of the Dublin Transport Authority thus far?

D'Peoples Voice

What do people think of the Dublin Transport Authority performance so far with respect to Value for Money?
http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=7055&lang=ENG&loc=1850

Government moves to establish Dublin Transport Authority
Break line image
6 November 2005

Professor Margaret O'Mahony to head team to formulate structures

Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen T.D., has announced the appointment of a team charged with establishing the new transport authority for the Greater Dublin Area. The team will finalise the structures of the new authority and identify the people to deliver Transport 21. The new authority, on establishment, will be a powerful, executive-driven body with a wide remit.

The establishment team will be led by Professor Margaret O'Mahony, Head of the Department of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering and Director of the Centre for Transport Research at Trinity College Dublin who will be appointed non-executive Chairman of Transport 21 (CV attached). The other members of the establishment team will be John Lumsden and Pat Mangan, Assistant Secretaries General at the Department of Transport and Colin Hunt, Minister Cullen's Special Advisor.

The establishment team is charged with finalising a structure for the new transport authority, detailing its remit and responsibilities as well as identifying the human resources which are critical to the success of the body taking into account best practice and best experience internationally. Underlining the priority attached to the task ahead, the team will report directly to Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen T.D.

ENDS

6 November 2005

lostexpectation

dublin-city-councillors-notice-dublin-transport-authority http://busrage.com/2008/06/10/dublin-city-councillors-notice-dublin-transport-authority/

Councillors-concerned-over-Kildare's-powers
http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/Councillors-concerned-over-Kildare39s-powers.4848965.jp
are the right people getting upset...

Beta Ray Bill

To be honest

the cost of transport is fairly average however,

I am tired of hearing about new teams, sections, departments, authorities etc etc that are supposed to be tackling the problem.

The system has not gotten any better apart from a few new Bus routes and longer trains. but in terms of the reliability of the service the transport system in Dublin is exceptionally poor

IMO Buses have absolutely no excure to be late. Dublin City is littered in Bus Lanes.
The Same applies to CIE. however CIE only consider a train late if it arrives 10 minutes late which isnt good enough really.

More money needs to be spent on actually improving the regularity of the service rather than creating new teams.

Also a good friend of mine works for CIE and a signal controller. he has put forward a good few ideas to improve the service, however these proposals have fell on deaf ears. its seems CIE will only listen to "contractors" thats are hired for this task but yet know absolutley nothing about how the system works in real life.

lostexpectation

dublin city is littered with bus lanes, lol im tired of epople who want bus to fail.

PGL

please correct me if i'm wrong but the DTA have not yet been established....

paulm17781

grahambo wrote: »

More money needs to be spent on actually improving the regularity of the service rather than creating new teams.

I'd disagree with that. More money doesn't need to be spent, the companies need to be given realistic targets to meet. 10 minutes should be called late, not on time etc. Financial penalties imposed if 95% aren't on time, ie under 3 minutes late.

icdg

PGL wrote: »

please correct me if i'm wrong but the DTA have not yet been established....

That's correct. Only Parts 1, and 7-9 of the DTA Act have been commenced and this does not itself establish the DTA - the Minister needs to appoint a day by order to be the "establishment day".

There does exist an "Establishment Team" of sorts, but this isn't the same as a statutory authority.

Incidently, there was some talk in the wake of the Budget (and the hearlded "quango cull") that the DTA may not be established at all, or if it does, it may have some more bodies thrown in with it, most likely the Commission for Taxi Regulation. While I would agree with the Railway Procurment Agency (which will effectively be a middleman under the DTA Act) being amalgamated with the DTA, the CTR is a national body, if it is amalgamated with the DTA, it won't be a Dublin Transport Authority any more. Either way this will require more primary legislation which could delay the DTA's establishment by months.

antoinolachtnai

Margaret O'Mahony (mentioned in OP's message) has quit this role as far as I know.

Carawaystick

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Margaret O'Mahony (mentioned in OP's message) has quit this role as far as I know.

Yep she quit when the govt gutted the power of the planned dta regarding over ruling co.councillors

AlekSmart

The other members of the establishment team will be John Lumsden and Pat Mangan, Assistant Secretaries General at the Department of Transport and Colin Hunt, Minister Cullen's Special Advisor.

And I do believe that one Mr C.Hunt has progressed from specially advising Martin Cullen to being one of Noel Dempsey`s representatives on the board of Aer Lingus,a role which,one would imagine,currently leaves little time for any other interests....:rolleyes:

monument

As I've mentioned in another thread, the Minister has said the Dublin Transport Authority will not go ahead as planned, but it will now go ahead as a national authority (starting to sound something like the HSE and the Department of Health -- ie the HSE are to blame, not the Minister or the Department).

He mentioned the plan for this at the Department of Transport budget briefing. If I recall correctly it was after a journalist ask why a national taxi regulator would become a part of a Dublin authority.

grahambo wrote: »

IMO Buses have absolutely no excure to be late. Dublin City is littered in Bus Lanes.

Your use of the word "littered" is accurate - as the bus lane network is quite disjointed, kind of dropped in place like litter. But it's incorrect to say there's no excuse.

Even on many of the QBCs there's loads of "pinch points" where the bus lane ends and starts again a bit down the road, or sometimes where the lane isn't really wide enoufe for a bus when there's a truck in the next lane. Many bus lanes need to be extended to 24 hours, the limited time isn't enough in some places and you need buses to run fast off peek too. There's also problems such as junction enforcement, and of bus lanes where cars park or use lanes which are in use.

icdg

monument wrote: »

As I've mentioned in another thread, the Minister has said the Dublin Transport Authority will not go ahead as planned, but it will now go ahead as a national authority (starting to sound something like the HSE and the Department of Health -- ie the HSE are to blame, not the Minister or the Department).

Essentially, in this case, it will become CIÉ Mark II, with added-on bits and pieces. Which seeing as we already have CIÉ, seems a bit needless...

AlekSmart

It`s all running to plan really.

I suspect that many observers here were only too well aware that the DTA as envisaged by it`s original Implimentation Group was simply far too radical for Political dwarves such as typified by the present Government.

The very first item which the then Minister for Transport dealt with at the Initial Press Conference was the CABINET decision to reject the initial premise of the DTA strategy,namely primary control of land use and planning.

Once this had been struck-down the DTA was largely nothing more than another talking-shop on top of so many more already there.

Icdg point concerning the duplication of resources is very valid.
The oft favoured line that CIE is incompetent etc etc..is really only true in the context of CIE being a body totally in thrall to the Government of the Day.

The board of CIE exists to ensure the Body corporate carries out the wishes of the MINISTER.

Not for the first time have we a body packed with professionals and able people whose views and suggestions are subsequently deemed as at varience with those of the relevant Minister......Could anybody run a sweet-shop like this..????

D'Peoples Voice

Lads,
you can't be serious, what you're saying is that 3 years after the DOT announcing the setting up of this Authority, it doesn't exist.
Is it any wonder traffic is so bad in Dublin - we can't even establish an Authority never mind come up with a plan to solve our problems.

Then again, this is the same Department that were to bring in the new credit-card driving licences in mid-2003.

Please tell me the staff in the DOT did not qualify for benchmarking - hopefully the current economic crisis will correct this if they did qualify.

HonalD

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

Lads,
you can't be serious, what you're saying is that 3 years after the DOT announcing the setting up of this Authority, it doesn't exist.
Is it any wonder traffic is so bad in Dublin - we can't even establish an Authority never mind come up with a plan to solve our problems.

Please tell me the staff in the DOT did not qualify for benchmarking - hopefully the current economic crisis will correct this if they did qualify.

I think you are being a little disingenuous about the DoT. The Minister is responsible for pushing the button on the DTA, but there looks like there is more pressing issues on his mind....local elections etc.

Traffic is bad in Dublin for a number of reasons - not all that can be controlled - people insist on travelling by unsustainable modes...........

With regard to benching marking, as they say on the ads, your money may go up or go DOWN!

lostexpectation

how is setting up national transport authority cheaper and easier?

antoinolachtnai

i don't think you could read from what dempsey said that he wasn't going to establish the DTA. i think it's more that the DTA is going to turn out to have national responsibilities.

The DTA is supposed to be established and have PSO contracts in place by December this year. This is required by European law. This is not supposed to be something that can be put off.

That said, there is certainly not a lot of tangible progress.

monument

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

i don't think you could read from what dempsey said that he wasn't going to establish the DTA. i think it's more that the DTA is going to turn out to have national responsibilities.

Indeed, as I said: "...the Minister has said the Dublin Transport Authority will not go ahead as planned, but it will now go ahead as a national authority..."

markpb

lostexpectation wrote: »

how is setting up national transport authority cheaper and easier?

Presumably he can look at what staff he has in the DoT and simply replicate them? After all, that's all a new transport regulator will do. Alternatively, he could look at the fantastic work done by the taxi regulator and copy that. All that matters is that he can sit back, do even less than he does not and have even less accountability.

patrickbrophy18

I thought that the DTA was going to give the whole Dublin Transport network a complete overhaul. However, the way things have gone given the recession and other factors, it appears as though the DTA is going to be just another name for CIE. That seems to be about the height of it from what I am hearing on this particular thread. If not, what will happen to CIE when the DTA is established once and for all?

Victor

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0123/1232474676075.html

Dublin Transport Authority this year

The Dublin Transport Authority is likely to be fully established and functional by the middle of this year, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said last night.

The department has placed an advertisement in newspapers this morning seeking a chief executive for the authority.

The setting up of the authority has been long- mooted, but the most significant move towards setting it up came when the Act establishing the transport authority was passed by the Oireachtas earlier this year.

Mr Dempsey told The Irish Times last night that the authority being set up would lead to the overdue reform of the 1932 Transport Act.

“I expect to have it up and operational by the middle of this year, once this chief executive is in place. It has the capacity and the potential to transform the provision of transport in the greater Dublin area.”

AlekSmart

Mr Dempsey told The Irish Times last night that the authority being set up would lead to the overdue reform of the 1932 Transport Act.

Divil,detail......"Lead to"...Now correct me if I`m wrong but was the replacement of the 1932 Act not originally a pre-condition to the establishment of a DTA.?

Additionally,we see Mr Dempsey mention specifically the DUBLIN Transport Authority,does this mean his musings on a NATIONAL Transport Regulator have come to naught ?

Crikey but after last nights piece of Non-Governance by the Cabinet re the Social Partner negotiations I`m left wondering if the Cabinet exists at all..????

icdg

The explanatory booklet states:

"Legislation is in preparation to replace the Road Transport Act 1932 (which provides for bus market regulation) and to implement the EU Public Service Obligation Regulation outside the GDA. Subject to Government and Oireachtas approval, this legislation will assign national responsibility to the DTA for bus market regulation and the procurement of public transport services under public service obligations. It will also be assigned responsibility for the functions currently discharged by the Commission for Taxi Regulation."

Yet they seem to be progressing as otherwise under the 2008 Act structure, while the Greens seem to be insisting that a directly elected Lord Mayor of Dublin will become chairman of the DTA (that is not in the 2008 Act, which provides for the chair to be appointed by the Minsiter)

It is riddiculous to have a national transport authority called the Dublin Transport Authority * , have an advisory council consisting entirely of Greater Dublin persons, and be possibly chaired by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and yet having responsiblity for regulating transport and taxis for the entire country. Either they go with the original plan for two authorities, or they rethink the 2009 act entirely. And I'll repeat what I said earlier - a National Transport Authority is simply CIÉ Mark II.

(* Even if it is entirely consistant with a national airport authority being called Dublin Airport Authority...)

lostexpectation

how will this link in with the new mayors if its a nta

antoinolachtnai

The Dublin Transport Authority is not really a regulator as relates to buses. It is more of a strategic transport provider, a purchaser and packager of services. The only regulatory role it has is in relation to prices.

There are many issues with the legislation but it is in fact true that as he says, 'It has the capacity and the potential to transform the provision of transport in the greater Dublin area.'

I actually don't think it will be CIE Mark II. The european regulatory structure will make it very difficult for that to happen.

monument

So, does anybody have a firm idea if this is going to be the NTA or DTA?

Also, whatever happens to national taxi regulation, if the DTA goes ahead it should have (at least strategic) control of all transport in the GDA, taxis included.

dowlingm

An NTA should only worry about cross-boundary and rural routes. DTA, CTA, GTA, WTA and LTA should have control over "city" services which run entirely within their boundary. So a Dublin Airport-St S. G. route would be DTA, Dublin Airport to Athlone NTA.

icdg

dowlingm wrote: »

An NTA should only worry about cross-boundary and rural routes. DTA, CTA, GTA, WTA and LTA should have control over "city" services which run entirely within their boundary. So a Dublin Airport-St S. G. route would be DTA, Dublin Airport to Athlone NTA.

CTA, GTA, WTA, and LTA?!?! In this climate of public service cutbacks, you'd propose four new bodies (all of which need to have boards, chief executives, and lots of staff).

My own solution would be:

(1) Establish the DTA as originally envisaged.
(2) Give the regional cities and their adjoining county councils authority to licence bus services in their areas (given the stupid boundaries of some of the regional cities, you'd need to give them authority to licence a service running from city to county and vice versa and give the Minister reserve powers to interfere if the two authorities ended up at loggerheads, as they would be bound to do).
(3) Allow a free-for-all everywhere else, with county councils being given the power to procure rural local bus services in areas they are needed. I don't see why there shouldn't be full competition on inter-city bus routes.

dowlingm

icdg wrote: »

CTA, GTA, WTA, and LTA?!?! In this climate of public service cutbacks, you'd propose four new bodies (all of which need to have boards, chief executives, and lots of staff).

It wouldn't have to be as bloated as that, as the NTA could provide coordination support, but there would have to be some element of local control but without the county councils being able to do dopey stuff with it. Giving local authorities power to licence unilaterally would be a disaster in Waterford and Limerick, for instance, as failure to establish a cross-boundary commission would mean Clare refusing to licence services from Limerick and bizarre route structures to avoid cross-licencing at all.

Victor

Create a DTA and a nDTA (non-Dublin Transport Authority). Have a single administrative structure with two separate advisory boards, one for Dublin and one for non-Dublin.