The leader of the Irish Green Party announced at the launch of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan for 2023 in Tullamore that rural areas will get a boost in public transport options with 67 new bus services across the country.
This is one of the strategies put in place by the Green Party to dramatically improve public transport in rural Ireland.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan TD, who revealed the news of the launch of the new bus routes, said one of his top priorities was to improve rural transport.
“And we’ve already managed to connect towns and villages across Ireland. We want to build on that and go further to make bus travel a real option for more people,” he said.
He showed that many people choose public transport when given the choice. This is not only because it is cheaper but also because it is more ecological, more accessible, frequent and reliable.
“Public transport, both rural and urban, is key to achieving Ireland’s climate goals,” he added.
It was in October 2021 that the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan was launched. It aimed to identify gaps in the public transport network in non-urban areas and propose options to fill these gaps. The drive to increase rural routes comes on top of the Green Party’s success in cutting public transport fares by 20% until the end of 2023 and a further 50% for those using a Young Travel card.
Minister Ryan has also allocated 63 million euros to the development of new greenways as well as hundreds of millions of euros in funding for new bypasses to allow residents to once again enjoy their city center without traffic jams 24 hours a day. 24 and 7/7.
Last fortnight, Minister Ryan also allocated 290 million euros to 1,200 walking and cycling projects across the country.
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