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Earlier this week, Dublin Live spoke to Thomas O'Connor from the NBRU and plans for BusConnects.

He slammed the "appalling" plans and said Dubliners "don't want to interchange" and that the proposals will only lead to more people using their cars over public transport.

Kevin Carter is a graphic designer who has recently garnered attention online for creating singular graphics of the proposed A to G spines in which he added more visual elements to make them easier to explain.

Although he's in support of the BusConnects proposal, Kevin wanted to make the maps to better explain the singular spines to the public.

As a result of his work, he's been contacted by the National Transport Authority to create more of these maps and explain the routes in a different way to the maps that have been shared by the BusConnects designers Jarrett Walker and Associates.

As part of our series on BusConnects and following on from our discussion with the NBRU, Kevin spoke to Dublin Live to share his thoughts on the proposal and why it's a step in the right direction for the capital.

(Image: Kevin Carter)

He said: "The feedback [on the maps he's created] is that it's very clear and people understand it. People keep saying that BusConnects should have come out with maps like this in the first place.

"But my maps and BusConnects do two different jobs. The BusConnects maps are to tell you exactly which bus is going down which road. It's no good looking at my map and saying, 'oh this bus goes to Ashtown'. Where in Ashtown? They do two different jobs.

"Realistically, you need someone who understands the BusConnects maps next to you to explain them to you. Where as mine are very self explanatory."

He continued: "I think it [BusConnects] makes perfect sense. Overall, it's a great idea. The core ideas of free interchange, to encourage people to interchange. More frequency buses that don't all go down Dame Street. Every single bus that goes into the city now goes down O'Connell Street or goes down Dame Street.

"We can't put more buses on. We can't increase the frequency on the network we have right now, because there's no room in the city centre. You can be waiting 10 minutes for a bus and it will come to you full already. And you say, why can't we put more buses on? Because there's no room left.

"That's why it's taking this massive overhaul because we've reached the tipping point of what our current network can do."

As for the criticism of the plans, Kevin says that there's a lot of misinformation being spread around.

(Image: Kevin Carter)

He said: "The people who came up with this plan, this is their job. This is what they study, this is what they've worked at for years. They understand how a transport system works, and how roads work. I trust these people more than I trust say a trade union.

"I had an example today, a screenshot was taken of one of my maps and showed the two lines up after Whitehall - the line going to Santry and the line going to Beaumont - and a big circle was put in the middle between Santry and Beaumont and it was like "yes, but what about these areas? The orbitals provided are low frequency".

"I even showed the maps and said they go every 10 minutes, or every 15 minutes. I don't understand how anyone can say that a bus that goes every 10 minutes, or 15 minutes or even 20 minutes is low frequency. It's a very blatantly obvious mistruth.

"I found out recently that all councillors across Dublin were invited to workshops on the scheme last year. Now, they're going around saying it's a terrible job and no-one was asked. Well, apparently they were asked and they didn't do anything to stop it. I have very little sympathy with them.

"I have absolute sympathy with members of the public voicing their concerns, but I don't agree with these fear-mongering ringleaders.

"The NBRU mentioned they had the network direct re-design in 2011 - that was a cost cutting measure, and they were against it then. I don't know why they're singing its praises now."

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Kevin told Dublin Live he believes the plans will see more accessibility for users, and that while some services may see a reduced frequency - there's a reason for it.

He said: "The majority of people who live in inner to mid-Dublin, people who would go into town often and need a direct bus - they're going to have direct access into town. Elderly people living down in Newtownmountkennedy in Wicklow.

"Fair enough, if they need to go into Dublin city centre it's going to take two buses but I doubt the elderly living in Co Wicklow are making daily trips into the city centre to do some shopping.

"I understand the fear that people have about people with reduced mobility, because I know it firsthand. My father's disabled and he lives in Letterkenny, where he's got zero access to any public transport.

They've wheelchair accessible buses that go to Dublin, and Galway and Derry but every time my father tries to use them he'll get "oh we're not trained for that" or some excuse like that. I think less crowded buses is going to mean more space for wheelchair users.

"You can look at the new map compared to the old map, and the new map is much much more red. Which means higher frequency. Fair enough, now a route or two or maybe even a handful of routes may have reduced frequency.

"I think the people who made this plan - if they made this decision, they made it for a reason. I know there's going to be a huge drop in service on a particular road in south Dublin coming from Lucan, but as far as I know they looked at this road and saw that no-one was getting buses on this road compared to other areas so they moved the bus to other services.

"I understand why they made that decision. Obviously it reduces services on a part of the city, but it was for a good reason because nobody was using it."

While Kevin supports the proposals for BusConnects, he doesn't believe that Dublin has to accept them as they are.

He told Dublin Live that he believes that rather than demanding a route remains unchanged, the public needs to see why the decisions were made and explain their concerns to the NTA constructively.

He said: "I don't think there has to be concessions. If there is genuine issues with the network, they have to be solved. It's not put up or shut up. I wouldn't advocate that. I 100% agree with people's issues, and that's why I say - tell the NTA and tell the people who are designing this.

"I went up to one of those local meetings in my area in Marino and they were talking about the 123. And everyone was fuming. And the local councillor who was hosting it had pre-written hundreds of letters with envelopes and stamps ready to be sent off to the NTA with all these demands. One of them was re-instate the 123 in its entirety. The entire route.

"That's not constructive criticism whatsoever. No, we need to make changes for the whole city. The 123 doesn't belong to people in Marino, the 123 belongs to everyone in Dublin and everyone who wants to use it.

"People were angry because it's not going down O'Connell Street and it's not going down Dame Street. I said to people, if a bus goes down O'Connell Street it has to go down Nassau Street. There's no turn at O'Connell Bridge and there's no access through College Green. Those are the rules that the NTA gave the designers.

"Everyone was like, no go down this route so we have access to town. So I said why don't you suggest that it goes down Gardiner Street instead? And the response was, "why didn't we think of that?" And I said yeah, why didn't you think of that? You were too busy being angry. We need to think about what we can do to fix this.

"And then it was said it won't serve St James's Hospital anymore. Well, we don't know what buses are going to serve James's at the moment because it's being rebuilt and buses may not be able to go through anymore depending on how it's built.

"So then I said after it goes down Gardiner Street it could go down the quays and then turn left, get back onto Thomas Street and go onto the normal route that it does now. And after I said that, everyone calmed down.

"It was like a polar opposite and everyone was coming up to me and saying well done on saying that. Everyone was happy and more excited, I guess, about the plan because it was more about making the whole city accessible as opposed to just one route.

"The way Dubliners think now - they use their route, and they know their route but this is about letting the whole city know about how the whole network works."

(Image: National Transport Authority)

Although he remains positive about the majority of the plans, Kevin also sees problems with certain routes being removed and says that those routes will have to be re-considered.

He told Dublin Live: "So many people on Twitter have said why are they getting rid of the 33X which is the direct route from Skerries and Balbriggan. I looked at the plans, and I said "okay, why are they doing this?" and it seems that it's being removed because it competing with the train but it's a commuter train, not a DART.

"We need to keep that bus. I agreed with everyone. Yeah, that's stupid. But I said tell them [the NTA]. Just because I agree with the plan, doesn't mean I think it's flawless.

"I just think it's good idea, and to be honest I'm fed up of being on the bus for three hours everyday."

Ultimately, he believes that the confusion around Dublin's bus network is going to be removed with the proposal.

He said: "Dubliners know their route, but try to explain it to a foreigner. If you ask me how do you get from like Heuston Station to the airport. It's like "oh, I think it's the 145 from Heuston. And then I think it's the 16 to the airport?".

"Now I know that's the route, but not everyone does. In the new system - oh, you need to get a C and an A. Everyone knows where the DART goes, and everyone knows where's the Luas line goes."

On Friday, Fine Gael TD Noel Rock proposed that the NTA extend the consultation period on BusConnects, which closes on September 28.

He said that a lot of confusion remains surrounding the NTA's proposal, and that there's been no direct communication with the public.

Kevin said: "I don't understand how extending the consultation period will stop local councillors spreading incorrect information and scaring the people of Dublin.

"If we'd focused all our attention in the last two months into when someone has a problem with the plans to instead of organising a protest - telling the NTA. That's what the process is for. The NTA said "I have an idea, what do you think?". People are so angry about ideas instead of saying "no, that wouldn't work, here's why"."

Despite the back and forth on social media regarding BusConnects and the maps he has designed, Kevin told Dublin Live that although he may disagree with much of the discussion and outcry surrounding the plans - he just wants what's best for Dublin's public transport system.

He concluded: "People think I hate them, I just really want everyone to have a great bus service. I just think we should all calm down, that's all. Let's just calm down and figure this out."