Dublin Bus

The year 2007 marks the twentieth anniversary of the enactment of the decision made by the Irish government to split the existing monolithic nationalised transportation company, Cora Lompair Eireann (CIE) into three separate operating companies. CIE remained in existence as a holding company, but it was felt that the transport needs of the country would be better served if management was focused on dealing with particular elements of the CIE empire. The three operating companies were designed to give their managements a much greater degree of indepenedence that they had under the old set up. In the case of the Dublin Bus, the new regime manifested itself in a much more adventurous approach to running the business. Some of these initiatives worked whilst others were less successful. New routes were introduced, procurement policy broadened and the fleet was gradually modernised over the years which followed. All this was done against the backdrop of an Irish economy which started to boom in the 1990s though this in turn led to some of the worst traffic congestion in western Europe which made the operation of a reliable service in the city of Dublin very difficult.