The launch of the proposed Malahide Shuttle was blocked by the Department of Transport.  The Bus Route Licensing section of Department of Transport refused our bus licence application on 23rd April 2010, on the ground that:

“The Department has reviewed the level of existing services on the route and has found no evidence that existing services are inadequate.” 

This was totally at variance with the extensive evidence provided to the Department by the Shuttle Project Group.

We appealed this decision immediately and nearly 600 Malahide residents logged in to this website to support our appeal.  We thank you for your support.

But on 10th August, the Department rejected our appeal, stating that:

The Department has reviewed the level of existing services on the route including both bus and rail services and has found no evidence that existing services are inadequate. While many residents have shown support for this service, this cannot of itself be taken as evidence of unmet demand.

(So much for the views of Malahide  residents!)

Happily, this was not the end of the story, because responsibility for Bus Licensing changed from December 2010.  The new National Transport Authority (NTA) took over the responsibility.

The NTA's final guidelines for Bus Licensing seem to be much less concerned with protecting subsidised services than the previous regime and indeed than the first draft of the NTA's guidelines.  This suggests that the lobbying of the NTA, undertaken by us and supported by a number of other bodies and politicians, paid off in the final Guidelines.  But of course, the proof of is seen when the NTA  takes decisions.

On 20th December 2010 Malahide Coaches sent in an application to the NTA for a licence under the new Guidelines, supported by a submission from the Malahide Shuttle Working Group.

On 1st March 2011 the NTA refused our application.  The reasons given were very similar to those used by the Department of Transport (DOT).

We sent in our appeal on 18th March.   Our appeal was turned down on 26th May 2011.  No additional reasons were given for rejecting our case.

We contacted the NTA and asked for a meeting.  They agreed and this meeting took place in mid-July.  At the conclusion of this meeting, the project appeared to be at the end of the road, as the NTA had concluded that there were no additional benefits for public transport users, while Dublin Bus were likely to lose business.

Following rejection of our licence application and appeal, the Shuttle Project Group has been in dialogue over the past six months with the NTA.  The initial issue was the NTA’s model which had concluded that the Shuttle would not add to public transport use.  We are reasonably satisfied that this is because of the way it is set up, though we do not think the NTA necessarily accept our analysis.

More recently they gave us some information about their assessment of our application, from which we can see some of the criteria they used and what issues they felt we fell down on.

It is encouraging that the NTA has been willing to engage in a dialogue with us. 

The Shuttle Group is now considering whether it can put together a new application which would meet most of these points and thus provide a good chance of approval for a licence.