Details of the 2009 budget were announced today, key points relating to the budget for the Department of Transport for the coming year are below.

As usual the devil is in the details, or in the lack of details. It is safe to assume that any Transport21 projects not mentioned below are dead, and any that are mentioned are by no means assured further funding. For instance planning works for the DART Interconnector means that not a sod of turf will be turned for that project in the coming year, similarly for Metro North.

Many of the transport items mentioned are not really spending, new or otherwise. for example, Luas extensions being paid for by the private sector are mentioned for some reason.

We await with interest the improved bus priority measures in Dublin and the regional cities, no doubt Noel will issue a flurry of press releases in the coming days.

And, of course, there is no mention of the Dublin Transport Authority, so is it still happening and who is paying for it? Or maybe the echos of the 1980s will continue…

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It looks like the Dublin Transport Authority (DTA) will be branded as “Dublin Transport” when it launches in 2009. Peter Cranny, a Senior Transportation Planner for the Dublin Transportation Office, has registered both dublintransportauthority.ie and dublintransport.ie with the Irish Domain Registry, the body responsible for the management of Irish domain names (those dot-ie names that are used at the end of internet addresses).

Presumably dublintransportauthority.ie will be the corporate site and dublintransport.ie will be the one used to provide timetables, route planners and information to the general public.

Previously there was much talk of using a “Transport for Dublin” brand, in the style of “Transport for London” in the UK. Bearing that in mind, you would imagine our canny Mr. Cranny has registered that too… but, no! Low and behold, hasn’t it already been registered, by CIE of all people. How very strange. Our curiosity was piqued when we saw who originally registered transportfordublin.ie for CIE, none other than Joe Ross.

Transport watchers with long memories will remember a Mr. Joe Ross who was the IT Expert who worked on the infamous mini-CTC signalling project which rose in cost by an estimated €45M. The fall-out from the costly project overspend caused outrage at the time, although nothing was ever done about it due to some legal technicalities which halted the inquiry’s work.

So why has CIE registered this name? And why are they spending money on speculative domain names at all? Is this a reasonable use of taxpayers money?

It’s not quite a brand new news story that the government continue to waste huge amounts of money on consultants and logos, while projects continue to fall behind (metro north) and others are quietly scrapped (nearly everything else that is not related to road building) but it is worth noting nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Dublin Bus are crying out for funding for new buses and it is still not coming, leaving the network unable to cope with demand and ill-equipped to expand at all. There is no word on the minister’s “investigation” into how many buses are needed in the city, presumably he has the best minds from Transport House on the case.

The most extraordinary thing about it all is that people feign shock the Noel Dempsey’s number one priority is self promotion. What a surprise that is.

Senan Molony of the Indo writes:

TRANSPORT Minister Noel Dempsey spent €2m on consultants in the first six months of 2008 — with most of the money splurged on promoting the Transport 21 blueprint.

The bill was dubbed “truly astonishing” as it emerged that €1.2m has been spent this year on public relations, marketing and advertising.

The huge spend went towards promoting Transport 21, even though many projects aren’t due for completion before 2020.

Labour Party finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said: “At a time when the Government has announced that it is cutting back on such frivolous and wasteful expenditure, it seems extraordinary that Mr Dempsey could continue to splurge taxpayers’ money on promoting his department and himself.”

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Cormac Murphy of the Herald writes:

Fraudsters have been using forged bus and Luas tickets to evade public transport fares, it emerged today.

Dublin Bus launched a full-scale probe when the scam was uncovered, leading to the arrest of a number of suspects.

A man has already been fined €300 in court for using a fake pass, while other cases are pending.

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Dublin Bus have been forced to admit that there is a fault with the brakes on certain buses (which ones?), and that it will take ten days to fix. Jay-walkers beware!

RTE reports:

SIPTU says it has belatedly discovered that there is a mechanical problem associated with certain models of bus in the Dublin Bus fleet.

The union says that despite assurances from management it is concerned about driver and customer safety, and wants an independent safety body to examine the problem.

In response Dublin Bus confirmed there was an issue regarding a braking system on certain buses.

However the company said all the affected components were being replaced in a process that would take ten days.

In the meantime it stressed there was no risk to the safety of customers, staff or the general public.

The Swords Express are taking Noel Dempsey to court over the granting of permission for Dublin Bus to use the port tunnel. All a bit odd considering the services so not actually share the same route except for a short stretch in Swords - and even then the services are so differentiated that they serve totally different types of customers.

RTE reports:

A private bus company has begun High Court proceedings against the Minister for Transport over what it says was a decision allowing unfair competition.

Swords Express claims the Dept of Transport allowed Dublin Bus to change its route to compete with the private service.

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Once again scumbags have forced a reduction in bus services in some of the parts of the city that need them most. After taking advise from the guards, bus routes through Blanchardstown and Clondalkin have been diverted, and this will continue until the problems are resolved.

Andrew Phelan of the Herald reports:

Dublin Bus has been forced to pull out of trouble spots in the city following savage assaults on its drivers.

Following intensive talks with gardai, routes in Clondalkin and Blanchardstown have been diverted until further notice.

And now the company is looking for members of the public in Clondalkin to help them track the prime suspects in the attacks, or else the community risks losing its bus service.

Two bus routes serving the area have diverted away from their scheduled routes over a series of incidents that reached crisis point when a driver was viciously beaten. According to sources, the young victim was headbutted and punched on the ground by two men after he came to the assistance of a colleague who was being assaulted by passengers.

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As we pointed out back in April, the proposed Dublin Transport Authority does not cover any part of the County Louth. We noted that it was “conspicuous by it’s absence”.

Apparently Louth’s politicians are even slower on the uptake than their Dublin counterparts, and have only begun to take note of this quite important fact in recent weeks.

As usual the local people, the users of the transport services in question, are being let down by their public representatives.

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Pedestrians, cyclists and even the blind have all been placed at risk thanks to a secret deal between Dublin City Council and advertising firm JC Decaux.

The firm are supplying some bikes (cost: secret) in exchange for the right to place lots ad lots of advertising on footpaths (value: secret). Many of these signs block either the view from vehicles of pedestrians about to cross the road and/or the ability of pedestrians to see on coming traffic.

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Couple buy house next to railway track which is scheduled to re-open. Railway re-opens. Value of home increases. Couple sue because the trams make noise. It must be just awful living next to a clean, frequent and fast mode of public transport able to get you into the city centre in approximately 6 minutes.

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