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Minister For Transport Highlights Progress On Enhancing Rural Transport

Friday, 21 April 2023 09:42

Photo Credit: @EamonRyan Twitter

He was speaking at an inaugural National Forum on Sustainable Mobility in Athlone.

The Minister for Transport has highlighted progress that rural transport has made over the past year.

In just three months, Athlone has seen a 50% rise in E-bus use.

Minister Eamon Ryan was speaking at the inaugural National Sustainable Mobility Stakeholder Forum, which took place in Athlone yesterday.

The event also marked the first anniversary of Ireland’s Sustainable Mobility Policy, which was published in April 2022.  

In a review of the first year of Connecting Ireland, 38 new and enhanced bus services have been introduced.

Connecting Ireland is the national plan to deliver more and better public transport for rural communities. 

Over the past year, there have been 13 brand new services, 16 routes where frequency has been increased and 9 route extensions, which also included increased frequency.

This means that over 50 new towns and an extra 110,00 weekly vehicle kilometres were added to the public transport network. 

In total over 250,000 people in 187 locations settlements now have access to new and enhanced services.

In 2023, Connecting Ireland plan to roll out 67 new and enhanced bus services, which means that in the first two years of the five-year plan, there should be 104 new or improved services in operation. 

Minister Ryan said that the past year had shown that Ireland is on its way to transforming public transport services and putting in place the accessible and safe walking and cycling infrastructure that people want. 

“While we know we still have a long way to go in transport, the evidence of consistent positive change in public transport and in active travel speaks volumes about the huge effort already underway across the country to deliver the large-scale transformation envisioned by the Sustainable Mobility Policy. 

“This policy was launched last April, about the same time that the first Connecting Ireland service, the newly enhanced 176 Cavan – Monaghan was launched providing greater frequency and increased services to Cavan General Hospital. It was the first of 13 brand new services and many others providing greater frequency and extension and helping to increase passenger journeys on enhanced services by a massive 93%.”

“There have been many other significant developments. Take Athlone for example, Earlier this year, it became the first town in Ireland, as part of the Pathfinder Programme, to operate an all-electric bus fleet.  Over the summer, Athlone will have a new active travel bridge across the Shannon, providing a critical local link for walking and cycling as well as a strategically important milestone in the delivery of the Dublin to Galway Greenway. Athlone perfectly represents what is happening up and down the country.   Nationwide, local authorities are looking to make their town centres more attractive, safe and accessible.   They are slowly re-balancing the dominance of cars in favour of health and well-being outcomes for residents and visitors alike.”   

The Sustainable Mobility Forum provided an opportunity for stakeholders and citizens to reflect on progress to date and to focus on the potential ahead.

Panel discussions featuring academic, youth and disability perspectives were held alongside participant workshops on key sustainable mobility areas such as road space reallocation, shared and micro mobility, engaging communities, the school commute, demand management, road safety issues and public transport services.  

 

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