{"id":190028,"date":"2025-12-13T16:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T16:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/190028\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T16:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T16:48:10","slug":"charges-needed-in-dublin-as-morning-traffic-peak-now-worse-than-london-dublin-bus-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/190028\/","title":{"rendered":"Charges needed in Dublin as morning traffic peak now worse than London, Dublin Bus says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congestion charges to \u201cdiscourage\u201d motorists from driving in Dublin<\/a> city centre should be introduced to improve bus services, as average speeds in the capital are now slower than London, according to a Dublin Bus<\/a> official.<\/p>\n

Gwen Morgan, director of service operations at Dublin Bus, said congestion is increasing year-on-year and significantly affecting average speeds during peak times.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish Times this week, she said the average speed in the city centre was 13.4km\/h during peak morning times in October, compared with an average of 14km\/h in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s slow. We\u2019re operating some parts of our day slower than the average speed in London,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to a study published earlier this year<\/a>, the English capital is the most congested city in Europe, with Dublin<\/a> ranking third. <\/p>\n

While Dublin Bus works alongside the National Transport Authority<\/a> (NTA) to mitigate \u201cunnecessary\u201d delays to buses, \u201cthere is only so much you can do until something else has to be done\u201d, Ms Morgan said.<\/p>\n

She said congestion charges could be introduced \u201czonally\u201d or near certain \u201cpinch points\u201d in the city centre, such as Church Street, Dame Street and Pearse Street, where services \u201csuffer greatly from congestion\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018The congestion is killing us at times\u2019: Inside the Dublin Bus control roomOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Citing the Port Tunnel – which charges motorists a higher toll during peak traffic hours – as an example, she said the charges would \u201cdiscourage\u201d motorists from driving into the city centre, as it could make it \u201ctoo costly\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what we need to be looking at, as a country, is giving genuine priority to public transport, all modes of public transport over the private car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Increasing congestion in the city centre means that consistently meeting standards set out under Dublin Bus\u2019s contract with the NTA is a \u201cchallenge\u201d, particularly alongside a lack of enforcement of bus lanes, she said.<\/p>\n

Non-compliance over bus lanes is a \u201cbig problem\u201d with private car users \u201cgetting away with using them\u201d and \u201cbreaking the law\u201d, she said, leading to further delays and congestion for buses.<\/p>\n

Ms Morgan would like to see cameras installed at the front and rear of buses to capture registration plates of private cars using the lanes, which could then be shared with garda\u00ed to issue fines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been proven to work, and things like that give public transport a better chance to succeed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018You\u2019re talking about 6am to 6pm door-to-door\u2019: How motorway congestion in Dublin is getting worseOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Noting that the Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy 2022-2042 mentions potential congestion charges, a NTA spokeswoman said \u201cmore detailed analysis is required to assess the impacts and requirements of how such measures would be applied and work in practice\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Does Dublin need a congestion charge? An environmentalist vs a business representativeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She added that a national strategy on the use of cameras for traffic enforcement is currently being finalised by the Department of Transport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Congestion charges to \u201cdiscourage\u201d motorists from driving in Dublin city centre should be introduced to improve bus services,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7941,615,38283,61,60,7942,43],"class_list":["post-190028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-department-of-transport","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-bus","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-national-transport-authority","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190028","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=190028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}