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Rural Transport Services Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 December 2018

Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Questions (15)

Martin Heydon

Question:

15. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of the delivery of rural transport nationally; the way in which the existing system can be expanded and enhanced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52203/18]

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Written answers

As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. I do not have responsibility for the day-to-day operations of public transport services.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally. It also has national responsibility for integrated local and rural transport, including management of Local Link services funded under the Rural Transport Programme.

Public transport in rural areas of the country is primarily provided by bus and coach services, as well as rail and small public service vehicles (SPSV) services, which include Taxi, Hackney and Local Area Hackney services.

The bus and coach services include Public Service Obligation (PSO) services operated by Bus Éireann and other operators, Bus Éireann Expressway services, licensed services provided by commercial operators and Local Link services.

These services comprise conventional fixed services with regular routes, stopping places and timetables and Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services which respond to local demands and which constitute the vast majority of Local Link services.

I am committed to the further development of bus services in rural areas and that is why funding has been increased over the past number of years, for both PSO and Local Link services in rural areas.

The increased funding has enabled the introduction of 66 new commuter services into the Local Link network, operating five, six or seven days per week, as well as demand-responsive services. Key features of these new services include greater integration with existing public transport services and better linkage of services between and within towns and villages.

Furthermore, as the Deputy will be aware, following my engagement with key stakeholders last year, I tasked the NTA to examine how to extend existing Local Link services to provide additional services in the evenings. Subsequently, the NTA approved funding for 65 new pilot evening and late night Local Link services to operate on a 6 months trial basis to the end of this year. The results of the trial are currently being assessed by the NTA and the continuation of these services will be considered in the light of those results and the availability of funding in 2019. I wish to again acknowledge the Deputy's commitment to the development of these services.

The NTA is continually working with Bus Éireann to provide improvements on its contracted services across both its urban and non-urban networks. Changes already implemented this year or planned for 2019 include improvements in the regional cities of Cork, Galway and Limerick and town services in Sligo, Navan, Athlone and Drogheda, as well as to Bus Éireann networks in rural areas including to corridors in Mayo, Galway, Clare, West Cork, Kerry, Wicklow and Westmeath.

More generally, the Programme for a Partnership Government undertakes to examine how best to improve integration of services in the rural bus network within regions. This matter is being examined and developed by my Department in the context of the wider work on which it has embarked around a review of public transport policy, which is another commitment in the Programme for Government.

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