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Dublin Live
Dublin Live
National
Emma Nevin

BusConnects: Mixed feelings among northside communities ahead of N4 and N6 launch

There are mixed feelings among the public in north Dublin ahead of the BusConnects Phase 3 launch on Sunday morning.

The N4 and the N6 were originally expected to begin in January but were delayed due to driver shortages.

The routes are designed to link suburbs together without having to travel through the city centre and will replace the 17a and 31d.

Read more: Dublin Bus is hiring bus drivers with some great perks on offer

Councillor Noeleen Reilly, who represents the Ballymun-Finglas areas, told Dublin Live that she has heard a lot of concerns from the public but noted that there were some "wins" in the new routes too.

She said: "People are concerned about the interchange of buses. So getting two buses is a new thing for people and that's what I'm hearing concerns about.

"A lot of people are worried that the next bus won't be there on time. I'm hearing concerns from parents whose child is going to school and they don't want their kids to have to hang around Finglas village or wherever just to get another bus.

"It's really important that the buses are frequent. A lot of people are basing their concerns on their experience with the 17A, which had not been a reliable service at all as of late.

"We had a meeting the other day with Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead and I raised with them that I was concerned given the poor level of performance this year from the 17A and that we didn't want to see that going into the new services.

"They both committed that they had a very strenuous recruitment drive and they're fully confident that they will be able to operate the new services."

Councillor Reilly said a "real positive" of the new routes is that a bus will now travel direct from Ballymun to Charlestown.

"I don't drive, I use public transport and the changes that have been made to the 17A totally suit me. I'm one of those people that it really benefits," she said.

"So I think there's definitely a lot of pluses and minuses for people. We have to see how it rolls out.

"We've been calling for a bus from Ballymun to Charlestown for a long time and from Sunday that's finally going to happen.

"So that's a real positive and a real win for the people of Ballymun.

"I am getting a lot of negative feedback about the two buses but I wouldn't want that to overshadow some of the good changes that are happening here."

The N4 will travel from Spencer Dock Luas stop to Blanchardstown Shopping Centre and will serve Killester, Whitehall, DCU, Finglas and Connolly Hospital.

The N6 will go from Kilbarrack to Finglas Village, and will serve Coolock, Beaumont, Ballymun.

The routes will run in north Dublin with a Monday-Saturday frequency of every 10 minutes.

On Sundays, they will be every 15 minutes during the day and every 20 minutes in the evening.

A spokesman for the National Transport Authority told Dublin Live: "NTA has been working closely with Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland in making preparations for the rollout of Phase 3 of the new bus network for Dublin.

"Both Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland have recently recruited and trained significant numbers of new drivers, so we have every confidence that both the N4 and N6 will prove to be very successful.”

Read more: First new Busconnects orbital routes serving north Dublin to launch next month

Read more: BusConnects: Full explanation of changes to north Dublin routes

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