There will be no wheelchair accessible double-decker buses in Dublin for at least 18 months, a spokesman for Dublin Bus has told The Irish Times.
The statement comes in response to an all-night protest by a disabled Bray man outside Heuston Station at CIE's decision yesterday to purchase 150 "wheelchair inaccessible" buses.
Mr John Doyle, of the Centre for Independent Living, spent Tuesday night outside the station in anticipation of a meeting by the CIE board yesterday morning to approve the purchase of the double-decker buses, at a cost of £26.5 million.
He was joined yesterday morning by representatives of the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Forum of People With Disabilities.
"If I want to get on a bus now," said Mr Doyle, "I have to crawl on. Dublin Bus has ignored us, has decided it's cheaper to buy in these 150 buses, with public money, which only some members of the public can gain access to."
A spokesman for Dublin Bus said no wheelchair-accessible double-decker buses are available commercially.
"There are three companies looking at the development of accessible double-decker buses," he said. "Dennis, Volvo and DAF are all at the development stage and as soon as the buses become available we will get one of each to road-test in Dublin. The earliest that we could see the trials done, the orders made and delivery completed would be late 2000."
Sixty double-decker buses are due for replacement next year, he said, and Dublin Bus is considering replacing some of them with 19 midi-buses, sized somewhere between the Imps and single-deckers.
There are six single-decker wheelchair-accessible buses in Dublin, he continued, all of them on the No 3 route, which serves Sandymount to Whitehall. In Sandymount there are Rehab, Cerebral Palsy Ireland and Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland facilities.
Asked why more of these were not included in the current purchase, he said extra capacity was needed for motorists expected to transfer to quality bus corridors.
Mr Doyle has called for an immediate meeting with the Taoiseach and for the establishment of a forum to address the overall transport needs of the disabled.
