Review of expensive free travel scheme essential

OPINION : Reform of the €77m-a-year scheme should bring free journeys into off-peak times and not discourage travel

OPINION: Reform of the €77m-a-year scheme should bring free journeys into off-peak times and not discourage travel

SOME 700,000 people now avail of the free travel scheme which costs €77 million a year. Spending on the scheme has been capped at this level under the EU-International Monetary Fund bailout agreement, and this ceiling, together with wider capacity problems facing public transport, makes reform a must.

The numbers using public transport free of charge is causing capacity problems on buses and trains. Last month Jim Deegan, head of Railtours Ireland and a board member of the National Transport Authority, told a rail industry journal that the number of free travel passengers has resulted in fare-paying customers being “squeezed out”.

Deegan argues that the broad base and appeal of public transport is being undermined, pointing to a danger “the railway will lose its appeal to the general travelling public”. In the same article Iarnród Éireann chief executive Dick Fearn warned that the free travel scheme was presenting challenges for Government.

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As the Republic’s population profile ages, the spending cap is, inexorably, rendering public transport unviable. Since last year the Department of Social Protection has declined to process any applications for free travel in respect of new public transport services – with the result that few applications are being submitted. The department is also not processing updated survey data showing a rising number of free travel pass customers on long-standing services. The result is that existing paying customers must pay more or the service ends, or is never provided in the first instance.

At the height of the boom – September 2006 – then minister for social welfare Séamus Brennan abolished the rule that travel pass holders pay at peak times. Brennan, however, significantly underestimated the cost – within three years State spending on the scheme had risen 30 per cent.

What can be done? Consideration needs to be given to reintroducing fares at peak times. The integrated ticketing system is being tested for introduction later this year with plans for an integrated free travel pass with photograph identification and signature.

The integrated free travel card will operate as a swipe in the greater Dublin area, where such ticketing is to be deployed first. Where integrated ticketing has not yet been rolled out – ie where there are no electronic readers – the proposed free travel pass card will operate as an ID entitling the holder to a ticket.

With these changes on the horizon it would not be difficult to reintroduce peak time fares for free travel passengers. Before September 2006 peak time fares were levied on urban buses – and only urban buses. Past anomalies will need to be resolved and there is a now a case to ask free travel customers also to pay for peak time rail journeys. However, where a peak time rail or bus journey costs more than €5 a discounted fare could be set for pass holders.

The benefits of free travel, particularly for older people, are obvious, and need to be brought to bear in reforming the system. By facilitating older people to make journeys they may not otherwise make, the scheme supports a more active older population, bringing clear health benefits. Reform should aim first and foremost to bring free travel journeys into off-peak periods, and not to discourage total travel.

If there is agreement that a system of peak time charges should be applied, then attention should shift to making that fair. (In areas served by infrequent services – and only run in the peaks – it would not be appropriate to charge. And where off-peak services do exist but are few and far between, an intermediate solution could be adopted, with peak journeys carrying a nominal charge of say 50 cent. A complete tariff exemption should be given for pass holders travelling at peak times to medical appointments).

Fare-paying customers have been hit hard since 2009. A 30-day Dublin Bus adult ticket has risen by €10 in the past 18 months to €110. The Republic faces a choice between leaving the free travel scheme frozen in its current form and confining price rises to paying customers, or asking all public transport users to share the burden on the other.

The difficulties in operating the free travel scheme in its post-2006 format are becoming more widely appreciated. The Department of Social Protection now needs to publish detailed proposals for reform well in advance of budget 2012. Consultation should be timely and comprehensive.

FREE TRAVEL: WHO QUALIFIES

There are three categories of free travel pass. Blue pass holders are over 66. Holders of a yellow pass are in receipt of a carer’s allowance, a disability allowance or unemployment assistance, while red pass holders have a long-term incapacity.

Before 2006 red pass holders were free at all times and holders of yellow and blue passes paid when boarding buses between 7am and 9am, and again between 4.30pm and 6.30pm. However, peak time payment did not apply to trains, an anomaly extended to trams on the 2004 introduction of the Luas.

When the free travel scheme was originally introduced in the 1960s there were few commuter rail services and the Dart was more than a decade away. Today, it is estimated that almost four million rail journeys are undertaken annually with the free travel pass, evenly split between commuter services in the Dublin area and the interurban rail network. Free travel now accounts for one-fifth of all journeys on intercity trains.


James Nix works with PlanBetter, an initiative of environmental groups An Taisce, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the Irish Environment and Feasta. james@ien.ie.

Hassard Stacpoole works in media relations representing bus and light rail operators in the UK and writes regularly on transport matters. hassardstacpoole@hotmail.com