British Go-Ahead wins first bus service contract in Ireland

DUBLIN, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Go-Ahead, a Britain-based global transport provider of bus and rail, on Friday secured its first bus service contract in Ireland through its subsidiary in the country.

The contract signed between Go-Ahead Dublin and National Transport Authority(NTA), a government body responsible for public transport services in Ireland, will allow the former to run 24 bus routes in the country for a term of five years, said the NTA in a statement.

Under this 172-million-euro (about 211 million U.S. dollars) contract, Go-Ahead Dublin is supposed to start the operation of some of these routes by the middle of Ocoter 2018 and all routes by the end of January 2019.

All the routes to be run by Go-Ahead Dublin are located in the Outer Dublin Metropolitan Area, between Balbriggan, a town lying to the north of Dublin, and Newcastle, a town lying to the south of the Irish capital.

The contract also rules that Go-Ahead Dublin will be only responsible for the operation of these routes including providing buses and drivers while the ownership of the routes is still in the hands of the NTA.

Besides, matters such as fares, frequency and scheduling for the service will all be set by the NTA.

Anne Graham, Chief Executive of the NTA, said that it has been the experience internationally that introducing some level of competitive tendering into public transport services usually results in a better deal for passengers and for the public in general.

"We believe that with Go-Ahead Dublin as an operator there will be a fresh dimension to the way that services are offered," said Anne Graham. (1 euro=1.228 U.S. dollars) Enditem