{"id":165423,"date":"2025-11-29T04:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T04:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/165423\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T04:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T04:27:08","slug":"changes-announced-to-contentious-busconnects-route-but-further-protests-loom-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/165423\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes announced to contentious BusConnects route but further protests loom \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A protest against an \u201cunacceptable\u201d BusConnects<\/a> service is to proceed on Saturday despite the National Transport Authority<\/a> (NTA) announcing plans to amend the route after a \u201crocky start\u201d.<\/p>\n

Route 80, which serves Chapelizod<\/a> village in Dublin<\/a>, was introduced in October as part of the BusConnects network<\/a>. It replaced the number 26 bus service which ran from Liffey Valley to Merrion Square.<\/p>\n

Since then, local residents say they have been facing frequent delays and cancellations, and now require multiple buses to reach the city centre.<\/p>\n

The new route runs from Liffey Valley to Palmerston Park, and diverts from the city centre quays and bus lanes. After it crosses the river Liffey on to Bridge Street, passengers say it often meets significant congestion due to a lack of bus lanes.<\/p>\n

Those opposed to the route say it has resulted in frequently cancelled buses, and waits of up to 1\u00bd hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the 80 is the only bus that services Chapelizod, this is clearly unacceptable,\u201d said local Nick Stefanovic.<\/p>\n

Residents point out that the new route has also removed their \u201conly remaining direct bus\u201d to the city centre, resulting in an extra 40 minutes to the journey.<\/p>\n

Ahead of a planned protest on Saturday\u2019, the NTA announced plans on Friday evening to amend the route in the second quarter of next year.<\/p>\n

Announcing the amendment, Jeremy Ryan, director of public transport services at the NTA acknowledged the route \u201cgot off to a rocky start and didn\u2019t meet expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen rolling out phases of the BusConnects network, we always give a commitment to monitor the new services, identify any issues that arise, and to put in a fix where appropriate. That\u2019s what we are doing today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The amendment will involve merging the 80 service with the existing 130 route that runs from the city centre to Clontarf. It will come into effect in the second quarter of 2026, the NTA said.<\/p>\n

The new service will run along the current 80 route as far as Bridge Street, but will continue along the north quays to Eden Quay, and will carry on northward through the city centre to Clontarf.<\/p>\n

A temporary measure from \u201cearly 2026\u201d will see the 80 service operate along the quays, crossing at O\u2019Connell Bridge rather than at Bridge Street, and continue through College Green to George\u2019s Street.<\/p>\n

However, Se\u00e1n Hewitt, another organiser of Saturday\u2019s protest, said locals were \u201cmore angry than before\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NTA imposed one change on us without consultation and is now trying to impose another without listening to the community. It is a half measure and is not good enough,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of people just want a simple, direct route as we used to have, not a route that travels as far as Clontarf and is likely to end up with the same delays, cancellations and congestion as the 80.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A protest against an \u201cunacceptable\u201d BusConnects service is to proceed on Saturday despite the National Transport Authority (NTA)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29095,91863,38283,61,60,7942,43,16456],"class_list":{"0":"post-165423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-busconnects","9":"tag-chapelizod","10":"tag-dublin-bus","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-national-transport-authority","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-public-transport"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}