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Donabate Portrane Community Council initiated contact with Eirebus last year, in a bid to encourage it to apply for permission to provide services on the peninsula.
Donabate Portrane Community Council has also been encouraging the National Transport Authority to approve additional services.
Eirebus has now been granted a licence by the National Transport Authority to operate an express bus service and has had bus stop approvals granted by Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council.
Eirebus operations director Jeff Clarke told the community council: “We were granted bus stop approval by Dublin City Council this week – the final piece in the puzzle. We can now plan for a start date on our side.”
Because of the necessity for confidentiality, Donabate Portrane Community Council has been unable to comment on the licensing process up to now.
A spokesman for the community council said: “This is great news for people on the peninsula as there is a chronic infrastructure deficit in the area, and an especially acute problem when it comes to public transport.”
The community council has been actively pursuing improvements in public transport on the peninsula for some time now.
The community council said: “We have engaged directly with the various transport providers and stakeholders on everyone’s behalf.
“We did so on foot of numerous complaints received from many residents about serious train overcrowding, the need for more direct buses, and numerous performance and reliability issues with local buses.”
As part of its work, Donabate Portrane Community Council has complained to Go-Ahead and the National Transport Authority over frequent issues with punctuality and reliability of the 33B.
While there are more services timetabled under this regime than previously under Dublin Bus, experiences of buses turning up late or not at all are unacceptable, the community council said.
“The excuses offered for the poor service are flimsy. This is a most unsatisfactory situation as it impacts young and old alike on what is perhaps the shortest bus route in the Dublin area.”
A deputation from Donabate Portrane Community Council also recently met with senior management directly in Iarnród Éireann to discuss train overcrowding, and attended a presentation given by them to the Public Participation Network in Fingal County Council HQ last June.
In the last two years, Donabate Portrane Community Council wrote repeatedly to Dublin Bus requesting additional services be provided on the 33D route to augment the overcrowded train services.
The responses to these were most disappointing, the community council said.
Dublin Bus acknowledged the arguments were well made and said it was monitoring the situation.
But the State bus company gave no commitment to expand the number of buses beyond the current one a day in each direction.
“We are at a loss to understand why they won’t expand the service when a clear, demonstrable and sustained demand exists,” the community council spokesman added.
Details of the timetable, bus stops and bus route can be found in the images below.
