Minister to host discussion on public transport policy

ACustomer · 02-05-2018, 13:07

The proposed discussion has sustainable funding as a major item. This relates to how the recurrent operation of public transport is funded (and organised) and is in a sense separate from major capital developments such as Dart Underground.

Items which should be on the agenda:
1. Payment for "free" travel should come from the Dept of Social Protection and should be based on usage, not a lump-sum transfer, whihc I gather is the present lazy way of doing it.
2. Payment for upkeep of the basic infrastructure: track access charges road taxes etc. Do HGVs pay enough?
3. Should the CIE group companies compete with one another or should the NTA be given the role of developing services which are complementary rather than competitive? You can have competition for the award of services by the NTA, which is a different matter.

Finally, the 10-minute DART proposal has little to do with the case for DART underground, which is an extension of network capacity. Anyhow the idea of a suburban service where the intervals between trains is independent of demand levels is just nonsense (just look at LUAS to see how it should be done)

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02-05-2018, 13:07	#6
ACustomer Really Regular Poster Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 767	The proposed discussion has sustainable funding as a major item. This relates to how the recurrent operation of public transport is funded (and organised) and is in a sense separate from major capital developments such as Dart Underground. Items which should be on the agenda: 1. Payment for "free" travel should come from the Dept of Social Protection and should be based on usage, not a lump-sum transfer, whihc I gather is the present lazy way of doing it. 2. Payment for upkeep of the basic infrastructure: track access charges road taxes etc. Do HGVs pay enough? 3. Should the CIE group companies compete with one another or should the NTA be given the role of developing services which are complementary rather than competitive? You can have competition for the award of services by the NTA, which is a different matter. Finally, the 10-minute DART proposal has little to do with the case for DART underground, which is an extension of network capacity. Anyhow the idea of a suburban service where the intervals between trains is independent of demand levels is just nonsense (just look at LUAS to see how it should be done)