Written answers
Tuesday, 5 October 2004
Department of Transport
Public Transport
9:00 pm
Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 401: To ask the Minister for Transport if the RPA will make arrangements through his Department to introduce an interim arrangement, pending the introduction of ticketing, in order that commuters who use bus, Luas and rail may be covered under the same ticket; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23553/04]
Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Railway Procurement Agency, RPA, has statutory responsibility for the development of a national integrated ticketing system, based on smartcard technologies, for implementation initially in the Dublin area. The contactless smartcard-based integrated ticketing system will enable a passenger to use a single ticket on one or more public transport services, by road and by rail, irrespective of the transport operator involved.
A first step was the launch in April this year, in conjunction with the RPA, of a smartcard ticketing system by a private operator, Morton's Coaches, on its services. Another important step will be the launch soon of smartcards on Luas services. In addition, it is expected that Dublin Bus, Irish Rail-DART and some additional private operators will follow during 2005. In the meantime, tickets using magnet strip technology are available for travel on Dublin Bus and Irish Rail services and the RPA has concluded a similar arrangement with Dublin Bus and Irish Rail in respect of Luas services. A combined bus, Luas and rail ticket is under discussion.
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