Translink Proposes Cuts to Youth Discounts and Late-Evening Services

Translink proposes reducing youth discounts and cutting late-evening bus and rail services from Monday to Wednesday amid financial pressures. A 12-week public consultation is underway to gather views on these changes.

Bus and Rail Service Discounts for Young People to be Reduced

Translink, Northern Ireland's public transport operator, has proposed reductions to bus and rail service discounts available to young people. The company also plans to remove many late-evening departures that currently operate from Monday to Wednesday across the network.

Translink cited "very real financial pressures facing public transport, driven by rising costs and a reduction in funding" as the reason for these proposals. A public consultation on the plans has been launched and will run for 12 weeks until the end of September.

Although Translink is publicly owned, it operates independently from Stormont's Department for Infrastructure (DfI). The proposals, published on Wednesday, state that changes are necessary "in the absence of a viable budget allocation."

Bus and Rail Evening Services

The plans include removing the last departures on the rail network and later bus departures that currently operate from 22:00 BST on Mondays to Wednesdays. Additionally, no connecting bus or rail services would be available to support the arrival of the last Enterprise service from Dublin, which currently departs Dublin at 20:50 BST and arrives at 22:58 BST.

However, Translink indicated that late-evening services on certain routes would be retained due to "significant demand and revenue." The services to be retained include the 212 Belfast-Londonderry service, X1, X2, X3, X4, 300 Airport, and 600 Airport services.

Fare Discounts

The proposals suggest reducing the yLink smartcard discount, which applies to 16 to 23-year-olds, from 50% to 33%. Off-peak day return fares on bus and rail services for both adults and children would be removed. Furthermore, some promotional fares currently offered would increase by £2 each.

Translink is also proposing measures to make pre-purchasing NI Railways tickets "more advantageous and convenient." Under the plans, customers boarding without a valid ticket would only be able to purchase single tickets on board.

In its equality impact assessment document, Translink acknowledged that the fare discount changes were "likely to have a disproportionate impact on younger people." It also noted that younger and older customers "may be proportionately more impacted by the removal of last services," and that some female customers "may feel proportionately more impacted."

Launching the consultation, Translink described it as an "important opportunity for passengers, stakeholders and the wider public to share their views, external."

"The consultation will support informed decision-making on how services are delivered across Northern Ireland, ensuring they remain as sustainable and effective as possible,"

it added.

"Translink will continue to work closely with the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) to assess funding requirements and the level of service that can be delivered in the future."

Disappointing for Passengers

In May, Chris Conway, the outgoing chief executive of Translink, told a Stormont committee that the company was seeking to make £10 million worth of savings. He acknowledged that the service reductions would be "very disappointing and concerning" for passengers but emphasized that the measures were necessary to "protect Translink from a financially unsustainable position."

Conway explained that Translink's public service agreement "has not been funded by DfI over the last couple of years" and that subsidies per passenger were "well below other regions in the UK and Ireland."

In April, Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins announced that Translink fares would be frozen for the second consecutive year. Conway noted that over the past nine years, there had been five fare freezes.

"Conservatively, those five fare freezes have cost us over £20 million of revenue,"

he told assembly members.

DfI has previously stated that its "priority is to support passengers and protect access to public transport." The department emphasized that the minister's firm position is that public transport must be affordable to sustain growth in passenger numbers.