Elderly taking shelter from rising costs on trains, group claims

Pensioners are being forced to pass the day travelling from one end of the country to the other by train because they can’t afford to turn on heating at home, according to advocacy groups.

The “day trippers”, as they have been dubbed, are using their free pass on return trips from Cork and Kerry to Dublin, returning home late in the evening to cut back on the cost of running their homes.

Others make a similar trip, leaving from Dublin and travelling to the South before returning to the capital.

Active Retirement said it is aware some pensioners travel in small groups, bringing packed lunches and flasks of tea, making the day trip weekly so they can pay their gas or oil bills at the end of the month.

“The train day trippers are just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much hardship out there,” said chairman of Glanmire and District Active Retirement Tom Byrne. “People can’t take any more, which is why we are organising a march against the budget cuts in Cork next week.”

Age Action’s Gerard Scully said they, too, have heard of old people being “forced out of their homes”, spending the day on trains, in shopping centres, and libraries as they can’t afford to put on their home heating.

“I am not shocked. I have heard this before,” said Mr Scully. “It is very, very sad, but it does highlight the benefits of free travel as it is much better to think of people travelling the country rather than sitting alone in a bench in a shopping centre. How isolating and demoralising is that?”

The Department of Social Protection is undertaking a review of the free travel scheme and is believed to be considering ways of cutting the €75m bill, including possible means testing, a levy, and restricting hours of access.

The Department of Social Protection said the cost of the free travel scheme has risen substantially over the past decade, from €45.8m for almost 608,000 customers in 2001, to over €75m for approximately 726,000 customers in 2011.

The Active Retirement protest is the latest in a bid to reverse Government cuts to the telephone allowance, increase the prescription charge, and to stop the removal of discretionary medical cards.

“The landline allowance is essential as it enables people to have an alarm pendant,” said Mr Byrne. “I know plenty of old people living alone who’ve had their lives saved by those pendants following falls, heart attacks, MS, and diabetic attacks.

“These people, depending on the State pension alone, are all dreading paying a full year of property tax and water tax next year. They just won’t be able to find another €114 to keep the landline going.”

Next week’s march will see thousands of pensioners from Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford, and Tralee take to the streets. Their protest will begin at Cork Opera House at 12.30pm and continue along St Patrick’s St to City Hall.

“The feedback that we are getting from people is unbelievable,” said Mr Byrne. “There is a real anger out there. Politicians haven’t a clue what it’s like for people living off the State pension. One man said to me that he is so fed up that ‘he will walk and walk until the soles of his shoes fall off’.”