Free travel for all under-fives on subsidised public transport services becomes a reality today.
As part of the fares determination published recently, the National Transport Authority announced that all under-fives get to travel free on all subsidised public transport including Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann, Luas, Dart and Dublin Bus.
The Authority recognises that the cost of travel with a young family can be expensive and today’s move marks another step towards making sustainable transport a more affordable option for more families.
Anne Graham, NTA Chief Executive Officer said: “Today’s development will be good news for families, particularly around this time of year as people get geared up for going into town to do Christmas shopping and to see Santa Claus.
“NTA has been taking steps to reduce the cost to families of using public transport since 2014. These include extending child fare eligibility to a person’s 19th birthday, and introducing ‘Kids Go Free’ Leap promotions during the Summer. This is something that we will continue to work on in the years ahead.”
Among other fare changes that take effect today is the expansion of city bus zones in regional cities which means that passengers on about 3m journeys on Bus Éireann will be paying lower fares in 2018 than in 2017.
Following an analysis of the fare zones the cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway an extended city fare zone will be in place. As a result, significant savings will be made by the commuters travelling from one of the new areas which are now included in the city fare zone.
When the city fare zone is expanded to satellite towns around these cities an extra 3 million passenger journeys each year will attract the lower city fares with most of these additional passengers within the Cork city area.
Take for example a passenger travelling in from Carriagline into Cork city. Currently the fare for an adult passenger taking this trip is €3.52 leap or €4.40 cash. With the changes to the city fare zone from 1 December 2017 this passenger will pay €1.89 leap or €2.70 cash, which represents a saving of 46%.
For more information on the fares see the Fares press release.
Click here to download the Fare Determination 2017.