{"id":671743,"date":"2026-09-04T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/671743\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T06:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:00:21","slug":"irish-bus-and-rail-fare-hikes-of-up-to-35-are-confirmed-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/671743\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish bus and rail fare hikes of up to 35% are confirmed \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government is \u201cnot in a position to fund everything forever\u201d, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has said, as bus and rail fares<\/a> are to increase by 15 per cent on average, with some fares rising by more than 30 per cent. <\/p>\n

Martin said there will have to be \u201csustainable funding models for a lot of State services\u201d and it was something he thought was \u201cfairly clear too\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> leader was speaking after the National Transport Authority<\/a>\u2019s (NTA) chief executive Anne Shaw told a briefing it was envisaged the fare rises would take effect in January. <\/p>\n

She said the aim was that the increased revenue generated would be used to continue growing the public transport network.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do need a sustainable funding programme in respect of being in a position to continue to expand services and public transport into the future,\u201d Martin told reporters in Dublin on Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere has already been a substantial increase in funding towards public transport over the last number of years, close to a billion now in subvention and in supports. So to expand that even further, we will require significant more funding, and this is one contributory aspect to it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Martin also said Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> would be coming forward at \u201ca later date\u201d in relation to expanding public transport services. <\/p>\n

The NTA said earlier that the revised fares would apply to all State-subsidised routes \u2013 known as public service obligation \u2013 operated by Dublin Bus, Bus \u00c9ireann, Irish Rail, Luas, Go Ahead Ireland and Transport For Ireland (TFI) Local Link services. <\/p>\n

In Dublin, the TFI 90 fare, which allows unlimited travel over a period of an hour and a half, will rise by 30 cent for adults to \u20ac2.30. <\/p>\n

Adult town fares across the country will increase by 10 per cent to \u20ac1.65. <\/p>\n

The NTA said while adult fares overall would rise by 15 per cent on average, many child fares, particularly in regional cities and towns, would be reduced. <\/p>\n

It said although there would be an average 15 per cent rise in bus, inter-city rail, and Local Link and regular rural services, most fares would remain below 2018 levels. <\/p>\n

The NTA said free travel for all children up to age nine and for people over 66 would be unchanged. It said free travel for other passengers eligible under the Free Travel Scheme would also be protected.<\/p>\n

Shaw said it was possible the price rises could impact the rising numbers of passengers using public transport experienced over recent years. <\/p>\n

However, she said public transport continued to offer value for money. <\/p>\n

She said the moves announced on Thursday represented the first change in the fare structure since 2018. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first general increase in public service obligation fares in eight years and is an important step in supporting continued investment in expanded services, increased capacity and enhanced connectivity across the country,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Shaw said the changes struck \u201ca careful balance\u201d between keeping public transport affordable and \u201censuring we can continue building a larger, more accessible and better-connected network for communities across Ireland\u201d. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, O\u2019Brien said the new fare structure was necessary to support continued investment in public transport, enabling the expansion of services and the delivery of key infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

He argued that despite the 15 per cent average increase, \u201cpublic transport fares in Ireland will remain competitive by international standards. <\/p>\n

\u201cI acknowledge the NTA\u2019s decision to publish a new fares determination today. This is a crucial step to expand capacity across our public transport service,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis expansion will enable approximately 140 new and improved services and signals one of the most ambitious in-year investments across our flagship programmes such as Connecting Ireland and BusConnects in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Climate Change Advisory Council chairman Alex White said the decision to increase fares was \u201cregrettable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransport is proving one of the most difficult sectors in which to cut carbon emissions because petrol and diesel vehicles still dominate despite the increase in electric alternatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made a point to emphasise the critical importance of expanding public transport choices and cost is always going to be a factor for people so an increase in the fares is going to be a disincentive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s regrettable that fares are going up. They did come down \u2013 that has to be acknowledged \u2013 but I believe it\u2019s better that they would stay down because it would incentivise people to use public transport, to switch to public transport or to stick to public transport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government is \u201cnot in a position to fund everything forever\u201d, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has said, as bus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,17208,2190,2914,11802,18,13,14,4771,27929,6,19,17,13419,11,12,11550,15,16,5765,13456,5,13421,7,8],"class_list":["post-671743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-bus-eireann","tag-cost-of-living","tag-darragh-o-brien","tag-dublin-bus","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fianna-fail","tag-go-ahead","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-rail","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-luas","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-micheal-martin","tag-national-transport-authority","tag-news","tag-public-transport","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117211248987936362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}