January 25, 2009 View all news Environmental groups have called the 10% cut in Dublin buses 'environmentally retrograde'. 'Removing 10% of its buses means Dublin Bus will begin a downward spiral that will make our car dependency even worse. This is against every environmental and sustainable principle', the groups claim. Friends of the Irish Environment pointed out that Ireland's transport emissions are the fastest growing source of our greenhouse gas emissions. 'The cuts make any moves to limit private transport in the city even more remote.' With no rational system of shared routes between Dublin Bus and private bus services there is no alternative bus service on offer in most areas of the Dublin metropolitan region. Savings could be made by Dublin Bus being more flexible in deploying its fleet to make it more effective. It is critical that additional road capacity like the new 3rd lane on the M50 be reserved for public transport. There are huge areas of Dublin (especially along the M50 in the west) where employees and others have no choice but to use cars. These cuts undermine the effort going into creating more bus lanes in Dublin. Less buses mean less effective use of bus lanes. Realistic public transport systems in a major urban areas like Dublin must not be run down through false economies. While 'cuts in public transport are a disaster at any time this is especially true when people have less money. The unemployed need access to job opportunities. And people are likely to have to sell their cars for financial reasons.' Categorised in: Transport