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demands 760 extra buses
Page 76
Page 77
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CIE PHASES IN FACILITIES FOR ANOTHER 50,000 REGULAR TRAVELLERS
By Ashley Taylor
AMIRTE, Assoc Inst T
NATIONAL passenger transport undertaking has responsibilities as well as privileges. So when the Minister for Education in the Republic of Ireland decided this year that there should be free transport for all post-primary pupils living more than three miles from school it was only really necessary, in theory at any rate, to take the "passed to you" procedure.
This gave Coras Iompair Eireann the possibly welcome prospect of something around 100,000 extra passenger journeys each weekday, all concentrated in short periods morning and afternoon.
It also needed, of course, a substantial increase in the number of vehicles, and hundreds of extra drivers. To provide these facilities in the first year will cost over £800,000, with an extra £100,000 for primary pupils' transport to and from special and ordinary national schools.
Since Coras Iompair Eireann is now arranging all school transport in the Twenty-Six Counties a survey has been made in order to ensure that all licensing requirements are being observed by these private operators who have been brought into the scheme.
At the same time CIE insurance experts have checked that all the insurance policies held give adequate protection for the pupils. In addition to the post-primary scholars CIE has become
responsible for the various services provided at primary schools, already mentioned, including those for mentally and physically handicapped children. In the latter section some 350 vehicles, almost all of them privately owned mini-buses and special ambulances, carry the schoolchildren. From last September CIE, acting on behalf of the Minister of Education, took over and commenced to pay for all of these services.
The Ministry estimated that implementing the basic post-primary plan would take two or three years, but CIE experts, after examining the whole situation, came up with an entirely new approach for this special situation.
As a result at the beginning of September, after six months planning, 75 per cent of the pupils were getting the promised transport. By Easter 1968 the total will have risen to 95 per cent, and by the beginning of the second school year next September the facilities shouldrbe 100 per cent operational.
On school work it could be taken in round figures that an additional 51,000 passengers—the number involved—would require a little more than 1,000 buses, which would represent a lot of money and probably an impossible time-lag.
The first move was to find out to what extent the pupils concerned were using stage carriage and rail services and to what
further extent these services could relieve the load. The answer was: 13,500 passengers. This left 37,500 to be transported by other means and lowered the special vehicle demand to 760.
One of the priority problems was how to staff economically short-time services all over the country, including some in the most remote areas. The solution? A specific recruitment, training and testing programme for part-time drivers. Agreement with the unions on this matter was reached by CIE in the interests of providing free transport at the lowest possible cost to the public purse.
Those already enrolled include agricultural workers, teachers, garage owners, housewives and clerks.
Programme progressing
Obtaining 760 buses might be expected to take time, to say nothing of money, and even now they are not all available but the programme is well on the way.
Since the operating hours of a school bus are only about three daily, and the annual mileage only about 12,000, it is possible to use vehicles that might otherwise have been retired. The CIE has, in fact, been able to retain on the active list for this purpose about 100 units for which replacements have arrived in accordance with the normal schedules. The older vehicles have been specially re-conditioned for school duties.
A number of coaches and holiday buses were brought into action at the beginning of October after the finish of the tourist season.
In various districts where there was special need private arrangements for buses had previously been made by parents' associations and similar bodies. As early as last April CIE took over and paid for on behalf of the Minister of Education all such special services. About 5,000 children then received free transport.
Some school services have been sub-contracted to owners of private buses where these vehicles have proved to be in accor dance with the standards fixed. One way or another an irreducible deficiency of 230 buses was left and units to fill this need are being specially built.
Functional specification
The CIE bodybuilding works at Spa Road, Inehincore, is producing 130 specially designed large single-deckers, and three private assembly works at Dundalk are turning out the remaining 100 medium-sized designs. An exclusively school bus specification of a functional nature has been evolved, retaining all the essentials but eliminating, among other things, luggage racks and baggage spaces. Construction is lighter than the standard passenger service bus and finished costs are lower. The first of these• units is scheduled to enter service next December.
The Bedford VAS 1-5 chassis will be employed for the medium-size bus which will be 25ft long, 7ft 6in wide, with a 164in wheelbase and carry 49 children or 33 adults. These mediumcapacity buses will be built by the consortium of three bodybuilders, the Mc Ardle, Duffy and Murphy organizations, in Dundalk.
For the large buses the Bedford SB 5 chassis will be used. Its overall length will be 31ft 6in, width 8ft 2Iin, wheelbase 216in and capacity 67 children or 45 adults.
The skeleton framing for both the designs will be supplied by Metal Sections Ltd. of Birmingham. Exteriors will be golden brown with a 20in white band starting 4in below the window line. Lettering and symbols will be in black, as will the wheels.
Transport liaison officers acting for the Ministry will identify the children in the various areas who qualify for free transport. Each officer renders a list to the CIE, specifying the route over which service is to be provided. Individual season tickets, available for a year, are issued to each child. Altogether 350 post-primary school centres throughout the Twenty-Six Counties come under the scheme.
On the operating side the CIE district managers were given responsibility for the actual planning and execution in the various areas, the task of co-ordination between them being that of the area managers for the five CIE administrative territories, Dublin, Galway, Waterford, Limerick and Cork. Final co-ordination, and liaison with the police and with the Department of Education and Local Government, have been undertaken centrally in CIE by the specialist school transport officer, Mr. Cormac 3. Whalley.
Foundations laid
During the final term of the 1966-67 school year (April 1-Junt 30 last), CIE commenced laying down the foundations for the overall organization. In April, the various special rural bus services that had previously been arranged locally by parents' and other organizations to carry school children were taken over. With these acquisitions some 5,000 pupils entered the scheme immediately.
The following month the issue of free passes was initiated for those children who had been attending secondary and vocational schools and up to that time had been paying fares on stage carriage services. The same arrangement applied where it was possible for the children to travel by rail.
Altogether this meant that a further 12,000 pupils came under the free travel plan. In May, also, certain special school bus services were started at various centres throughout the country, these employing both CIE vehicles and a number of those privately owned.
In this way an additional 4,000 children began to enjoy the new privilege in those areas which were regarded as a priority consideration by the Department of Education. Out of a total of 51,000 eligible children, 21,000 already enjoyed the facilities before the end of the 1966-67 academic year.
51,000 new passengers
As has already been indicated the total number of new school passengers was 51,000. Up to the beginning of September accommodation had been made available for 38,000, of these 13,500 being carried on scheduled bus and train services and the remaining 24,500 on special buses. With the falling off in seasonal demand for holiday services and the consequent freeing of vehicles a further 5,800 children were brought into the scheme early in October.
At the beginning of 1968, as new buses are delivered in a phased programme up to mid-February, an additional 3,800 will be carried. Finally, after the next Easter holidays another 900 will come into the scheme, leaving only 2,900 to be provided for in the term commencing September 1968.
Many phone cabs were at one period being received by the various CIE offices regarding the eligibility of children for free transport but the decision was, and is, a matter for the education authorities. All parents were advised to contact the heads of the schools concerned or the chief executive officer of the Vocational Educational Committee for the area in which the school was situated.
Immediately before the main sector of free transport for primary and post-primary school children went into operation the whole situation was explained in detail at a Press conference given by Mr. Daniel Herlihy, CIE deputy general manager (operations), in conjunction with Mr. T. C. Toner, transport control and planning officer, and Mr. C. J. Whalley, the school transport officer already mentioned.
In order to launch the operation smoothly further explanations of the plan were given at conferences held by area managers and district managers throughout the country. Subsequent events have shown the effectiveness of the planning and execution of the proposals.