Two bus stops — one inbound and one outbound — are to be reinstated on the Clontarf to City Centre bus and cycle route.
UPDATE: Councillors have been told that as it is currently planned, only buses on the 130 bus route are due to stop at the reinstated stops.
The stops are number 617 inbound at Strandville Avenue and number 518 near Waterloo Avenue.
The reinstatement of the stops is to happen after strong public complaints about the removal of bus stops along the route. Dublin City Council also had repeatedly said that it would not be possible to retain or reinstate the stops.
At the start of October, IrishCycle.com covered the possibility of reinstating these two stops. Before the project was designed, a high number of bus stops were only 200 metres apart which is associated with delaying bus services and increasing the chances of bunching where buses catch up with the bus ahead.
International research puts the recommended spacing between stops at around 400 metres. However, where the stops are to be reinstated the gaps between stops were the largest on the project, extending to nearly 600 metres.
Cllr Ray McAdam (FG) said: “The restoration of bus stops thought lost is most welcome. The intervention by the NTA on foot of my engagement I and Minister Paschal Donohoe had have in recent times has meant that the community along the North Strand will once again be able to better access bus services in and out of town.”
According to a response provided to Cllr McAdam, the NTA outlined that: “In the Inbound direction, the new stop [stop 617] will require the conversion of an already constructed car parking bay (two car spaces in front of North Strand Floors/North Strand Beds and Furniture) into a bus stop equipped with a bus shelter, and the consequential loss of these two car parking spaces.”
The NTA added: “At the outbound stop at the railway bridge, a bus stop [stop 518] will be provided but there isn’t space to provide a bus shelter. However, the bridge structure does provide some level of weather protection.”
Cllr McAdam tabled an emergency motion in September seeking the reinstatement or non-removal of three bus stops.
In a response to that motion, Andy Walsh, head of the Active Travel Office at Dublin City Council, said that the bus stops were segregated when a majority of councillors made that a condition of their Part 8 approval in October 2017.
The Part 8 amendment sought that “all bus stops along the route shall be redesigned to segregate buses and bicycles as recommended by the National Cycle Manual”. The project design team then mixed this requirement with a project requirement for longer bus stops to allow more buses to stop at once. The 617 and 518 stops will not be as long as the standard bus stop design on the project.
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A bit of sense at last, though serving only one route is a bit strange. I dread to think how much that stupid decision to remove the stops in the first place cost.