Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In recent times, we have done a great deal to improve bus services in rural areas. The Deputy will be aware that along with the National Transport Authority, NTA, we launched a programme last year to improve the rural bus network through the LocalLink services. I think there are 59 such services now. There were 66 services at one stage. As part of an extremely successful pilot scheme between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., services have been provided on the basis of demand response units and others have been provided by adding to existing routes. They have worked very well and they have been very well responded to. The NTA has decided it is well worth continuing with this sort of project. We have given grants to various other community transport systems in rural Ireland to help out where there is no commercial reason to launch projects of this sort, but there is a social need. It would be wrong to suggest we are ignoring rural Ireland in this area because the opposite is the case. We are looking for constructive solutions to assist isolated people who cannot get out in the evenings or at various other times of the day. We have made great strides in this respect. We intend to continue to expand these initiatives. We have introduced new rail services on the crowded commuter lines to which the Deputy has referred. We have introduced additional trains at off-peak times to try to change people's travel patterns as they commute to and from work and thereby reduce overcrowding on some commuter rail services. We think this has been successful as well.

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