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27th Jan 2022

Fare reductions being considered to encourage people to use public transport

Stephen Porzio

A potential return of the Kids Go Free campaign is also being examined.

Fare reductions and a return of the Kids Go Free campaign is being considered by the National Transport Authority (NTA) in order to encourage people to use public transport following the Covid pandemic.

Chief Executive of the NTA Anne Graham made the comments on Thursday (27 January) when appearing before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee.

This was after she was asked by co-leader of the Social Democrats Catherine Murphy what the NTA are doing to rebuild the use of public transport.

“Naturally enough when people have been told: ‘Don’t use public transport during the Covid pandemic,’ it’s had a very significant impact on confidence in terms of the safety of public transport through a pandemic,” Graham responded.

“In terms of trying to attract people back to public transport were looking at campaigns, marketing campaigns.

“We were just talking about it yesterday about how we would build people’s confidence in terms of using public transport again where they haven’t been using it over the last two years.

“We’re trying to see is there anything we can do – if we’re in a position to do from a funding perspective – on fares reductions in order again to encourage people.”

“Like our Kids Go Free that we ran pre-pandemic, will we run that again in order to encourage young people and their parents to use public transport.”

The Kids Go Free campaign previously allowed all child leap card holders aged five to 18 to travel freely on Leap Card services provided they presented a Child Leap Card with at least one cent credit upon boarding.

Meanwhile, the NTA’s Director of Public Transport Services Tim Gaston told the committee that the biggest challenge facing the NTA is understanding what the new pattern of travel will be going forward.

“I think the one thing we’re sure is that most white-collar workers won’t be coming back into the office five days a week,” he explained.

“Will it be four or will it be two? If it’s two, that’s a very different arrangement for us.”

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