Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The recently announced increases in suburban rail fares are due to come into effect on 1 December. The scale of some of the increases is sizable and disproportionately affects one train line. The original destination zones along the line from Maynooth to Dublin city centre showed a clear pattern of having been pushed out by one zone into a more expensive price structure. Leixlip was in zone 3 but is now in zone 4 if one travels to the city. Even short hop journeys have had their original destination zones changed. Leixlip Confey to Maynooth is now considered to be a zone 3 trip meaning that local journeys are now stuck with disproportionately high fares, which puts people off using the service. Leap card users on the route will now pay an extra 37 cent per trip. There are 11,000 students attending college in Maynooth and 45% of them originate in Dublin west or north Kildare. It is not just people commuting to work and students who are affected. There is a good mix of people who will be impacted.

The aim appears to be to rebalance the original destination zones and if that was fair, it would be one thing. However, the result is that a significant number of people face substantial increases of between 16% and 18% from the original destination zones. Leixlip is 20 km from the city centre and there are two stations there whereas Bray is 34 km from the city centre. It is more expensive to go from the place that is 20 km from the city centre than from the place that is 34 km away. Even so, the town that is 34 km away has a better and more frequent service. There is certainly a reblance in terms of Sallins and Kilcock, which will have their fares reduced and will now come into the suburban service where they should have been in the first place. It is interesting to note that it is a shorter distance from Sallins to the city centre than from Bray, but the service terminates not in the city centre but at Heuston. Passengers must then get on the Luas for yet another journey. It is not even a comparable service in terms of quality.

One must ask if it is a fair increase given that distances do not seem to make a difference. It depends just on the location and the particular line involved. It now costs most people €36 per week or €145 per month just to get to work. It is a sizeable increase. Passenger journeys on trains have been increasing since 2014 and we all welcome that. There has been growth of 5% between 2015 and 2016 and it looks like the trend will continue. The commuter belt areas are those which show the greatest level of improvement. It is important that this continues because there is a significant congestion issue. One only has to listen to "AA Roadwatch" in the morning to know that the N4 and N7 feature every day. They are the roads which correlate to the two train lines to which I have referred. Congestion issues are increasing rapidly and there are obvious environmental impacts. Climate change comes into play in terms of meeting those targets. If we are going to make it more expensive and unattractive to use rail services, growth will not continue. I do not see the sense in it.

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