Translink announce public transport fares increase | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Translink announce public transport fares increase

Public transport fares in Newry and Mourne are set to rise after Translink announced a price hike of 3%.  Fares on a number of bus and rail routes across the country will be affected by the rise after the plans were revealed to MLAs this week during a Stormont committee meeting.

It is the first price increase from Translink since 2010 after they froze fares last summer. Increases will take effect at the end of this month. Deputy chair of the Regional Development Committee Pat Doherty said Translink may need to look at other ways to save money, “We intend to talk to Translink to see if they can bring about the savings by other means. We think there is potentially another way and we want to examine that.”

A Translink spokesman said those with a Smartlink card will not be affected by any increase, “We want people to move away from cash and move on to Smartlink and that’s why Smartlink fares aren’t changing. People have the choice on buses not to pay any more. So, it’s balancing costs, its balancing passenger numbers, it’s balancing government funding, which is also under pressure over the next couple of years, and we’re coming out with a fares increase that effectively plugs the gap.”

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Posted by on Apr 22 2012. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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