The Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland has demanded that commercial bus operators be included in the fare reduction scheme for public transport.

In a report prepared by economist Jim Power, the policy of limiting the recent 20% fare reduction scheme to state-funded public transport is criticised as unfair competition which “unfairly discriminates thousands of passengers, the majority of whom are based in regional and rural areas, where public transport options are limited”.

Power’s report, Unfair Treatment of Customers of Commercial Bus Companies in Ireland, notes that in the event that commercial operators are squeezed out of the market, the state will incur the full cost of replacing their services. “This cost would likely pale in comparison to the funding required to include CBOs in the 20% fare reduction scheme,” it claims. 
 
Some of the report’s key findings are:

• Approximately 300 scheduled bus services are not covered by the fare reduction measure, the vast majority of which are inter-city and inter-regional routes 
• Serious damage will be done to Ireland’s transport infrastructure if commercial operators are forced out of business due to unfair competition  
• The failure to treat the public transport system as a whole contradicts the principle of a just transition enshrined into law in the Climate Action Plan 
• The cost of extending the scheme to commercial bus operators amounts to less than €14m but the economic, social and environmental benefits are incalculable.

Jim Power commented: “This exclusionary policy has now placed the private coach industry at a competitive disadvantage at a time when soaring costs are already threatening to derail the industry.

“Inflation, labour shortages, rising insurance fees and spiralling fuel costs have put untold pressure on an industry which is still grappling with the financial repercussions of Covid-19.”

In Association with

CTTC chair John Halpenny said: “CTTC members, the majority of which are family-owned businesses operating on regional routes, will never be in a position to replicate the type of discounts that are being made available to passengers using PSO-funded services. This is why we took the decision to commission this economic report and launch the ‘Fare is Fair’ campaign. 

“From the outset, the CTTC has been keen to engage proactively with government and state agencies to find a workable roadmap to include commercial operators in the scheme. This report sets out a series of steps to make this a reality.

“We estimate the total cost of rolling out this scheme across the private transport network to be €14 million, which pales in comparison to the cost of replacing services if CBOs are forced out of the market.”

Power’s report states: “Where PSO-discounted services compete directly with commercial bus operators, the commercial operators could be forced out of the market. This would put increased costs on the state, as it would have to replace discontinued services with PSO services.

“In order to create equality between PSO-funded operators and commercial bus operators, it is important that a robust and verifiable mechanism be found to allow them to avail of the 20 per cent discount. A proposed mechanism is that it could be done through the Leap card system.

“The 20% discount should apply to all Leap card fares (separate from the Youth Travel Card). Anybody who wants to avail of the discount could purchase a card.

“Each day, all Leap transactions go through what is known as a system washdown. Currently, all operators are charged for whatever top-ups etc. that are owed to the NTA. All payments are made to operators, so as part of that payment process the 20% compensation could be paid.

"This is a tamper proof, fool proof system that’s electronically verified automatically. Essentially, we would be using technology that the state has already paid €53 million for.”

Photo (l-r): John Halpenny, William Martin of Martin’s Coaches, Sinead Kavanagh of Swords Express, and Jim Power.