Ms Anne Graham:

I thank the joint committee for the invitation to attend. I understand it wishes to focus on two areas, in particular, the vision for public transport and the subvention of public transport services.

Before dealing with these two specific areas, I would like to set the context by providing a brief overview of the remit of the National Transport Authority. It is to regulate and develop the provision of integrated public transport services, namely, bus, rail, light rail and taxi, by public and private operators in the State, to secure the development and implementation of an integrated transport system within the greater Dublin area and to contribute to the effective integration of transport and land use planning across the State. In addition to its statutory responsibilities, the authority has various arrangements with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to discharge functions on its behalf. These include the assignment of responsibility to the authority for integrated local and rural transport, including provision of the rural transport programme.

The vision of the National Transport Authority, as set out in its statement of strategy, is a greater share of high-quality, accessible, sustainable public transport services being used by all. This forms the basis of all the work the authority undertakes. It has a statutory function to produce a transport strategy for the greater Dublin area, GDA, which includes the four Dublin council areas and counties Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. The GDA transport strategy for the period 2016 to 2035 was approved by the Minister earlier this year. It sets out how the vision for greater use of sustainable transport services could be delivered by 2035, allowing also for a 29% increase in transport demand in that period. The strategy outlines the heavy and light rail network, the core bus network and a supporting cycling network, as well as other demand management measures that are necessary to ensure 55% of the trips to work in 2035 will be made by using sustainable modes. While the authority has no statutory function to provide strategic plans outside the GDA, it has developed a suite of transport models which would allow us to do so. It has worked with Galway City Council on the Galway transport strategy and is actively engaged with the other regional city authorities in planning for sustainable transport services.

The authority is responsible for securing the provision of public bus services through two specified mechanisms: public service contracts, where services would not otherwise be provided on a commercial basis, and the licensing of public bus services which are operated on a commercial basis. Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann are contracted to the authority to provide public transport services. The authority is also contracted with TII to Transdev Ireland Limited for the provision of Luas services, while there are a number of bus services provided under contract to the authority by other private operators across the State. The authority has been working to improve public transport services since its establishment, supported by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann.

The authority commenced a series of network reviews across all of Bus Éireann’s services. Starting with the regional cities, a number of network changes were made which resulted in increased passenger numbers at a time of declining passenger numbers on other services. Some results are outlined in table 1 in the pack members have received. They will see that, between 2013 and 2015, passenger numbers in Cork increased by 14%, in Galway by 4.7%, in Limerick by 2.9% and in Waterford by 2.4%.

Bus Éireann's stage carriage service between rural towns is still in the process of being restructured on a county by county basis. In south Kerry an amended network of services has been implemented, while some revisions have been implemented in County Mayo and more are scheduled by the end of 2016. Reconfigurations of the network of services on the M2-N2 corridor approach to Dublin have been implemented and those planned for the M3 will follow before the end of 2016.

The objective of the rural transport programme is to provide a good quality, nationwide, community-based public transport system in rural Ireland which responds to local needs. In 2016 funding of €13.7 million was provided through the authority for the programme, which represented a 16% increase in the annual funding for the programme. With the benefit of this local collaboration, we expect to make considerable progress throughout 2016 in refining and expanding, where appropriate, the operation of local transport services, in addition to ensuring the optimal level of integration with other public transport services. There are 41 new rural transport services being examined by the authority across the State, with a number of local link offices. The planned services also include new town services in Cavan, Ennis, Mullingar, Kilkenny and Letterkenny. With the additional funding, the authority has been able to provide 13 additional services in counties Kerry, Wexford, Leitrim and Roscommon, ensuring better connections to and between local towns to key destinations such as shops, hospitals and community facilities. The authority is developing a three-year strategy for the development of rural transport services which will see further expansion of services and further integration with HSE transport services, subject to funding being received. The authority is working to simplify the fares structure for bus and rail services and offer integrated fare products across the State. The introduction of the LEAP card has greatly facilitated such integration. Our vision for fares is for a further simplified, better value fares offer for the public transport customer. The authority is examining what the next generation of smart ticketing might be for Ireland.

The authority has had a multi-modal national journey planner in operation for over four years. This allows anyone to plan his or her journeys to and from any location in Ireland by public transport. It has been continually improved by our system developers and a new version of the journey planner app has just been launched in the app stores. Real-time passenger information has greatly enhanced the experience of the public transport customer and the authority would like to expand on that system by erecting more signs and developing real-time travel alerts for customers as they travel.

The first real return to growth in passenger numbers across all public transport services occurred in 2014. The demand for public transport services continued to grow in 2015 as illustrated in the table. To date in 2016, passenger numbers have continued to grow, with estimated outturn growth of between 5% and 8% expected by the end of the year. Demand for travel services is on the increase and the level of patronage on public transport services is growing. This trend of increased overall demand is expected to continue and accelerate with further economic recovery and population growth envisaged in the next five years. Public transport service provision must anticipate this growth and additional service provision should occur in a timely manner to influence mode choice associated with the increased levels of demand, particularly arising from new developments and new employment opportunities. This will assist in maximising the public transport market share and national policy aims to increase mode share for sustainable travel services. It is unlikely that all such demands can be met within existing service provision and capacity, particularly within the city and urban networks where population growth will be highest, and where existing peak capacity is already well used. The authority will continue to work to improve existing public transport services and provide additional services to meet the growing demand within the budget it receives.