Elderly and commuters should use school buses in rural areas, says IRL

OLDER people and commuters should be allowed to use school buses as one option to providing public transport in rural areas, according to Irish Rural Link (IRL).

A report on rural transport in conjunction with Comhar, the Sustainable Development Council, sets out a vision for reducing car dependence and increasing public transport in rural areas.

The report says it is unlikely a door-to-door public transport service can be provided to every single household in rural areas and that a combination of services at different levels of frequency is needed.

It calls for high quality national transport services with pick-up points on national routes; better integration of existing services, regular commuter services between towns and villages and mobility management plans for workplaces, schools and sporting activities.

The report highlights the need for good quality information to link transport systems and enable travel across a range of services.

It suggests rural transport planning should be moved from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to the Department of Transport.

A group of experts in the Department of Transport should be available to communities to enable more professional planning. More public funds are also required to support rural transport provision.

IRL chief executive Seamus Boland said part of Ireland’s quandary regarding sustainable rural transport lies in the lack of integration between policies.

Such lack of integration across Government departments, their policies and programmes is at the heart of the problem.

“To leave the status quo untouched while trying to implement a rural transport scheme to help build and sustain rural communities becomes more and more inefficient,” he said.

Arts, Sports and Tourism Minister Martin Cullen told the conference 37 community transport groups nationwide are being funded under the Department of Transport’s rural transport programme to address social exclusion in rural areas.

He said the bottom-up approach demonstrated the effectiveness of the community and voluntary initiative in the provision of rural transport services.