Momentum must continue until we have a full accessible public transport service for people with disabilities Pat the Cope Gallagher

Date: 21 July 2006

Minister of State for Transport, Pat the Cope Gallagher, T.D. today (Friday, 21st July 2006) said that while he was pleased with the increasing level of accessibility on public transport for people with disabilities, it is essential that the momentum continues until a full accessible service is made available. The Minister was speaking after the launch of the Government's Sectoral Plan for Accessible Transport.

The Sectoral Plan sets out a series of policy objectives and targets for accessible transport across all modes of transport measures to make trains, buses, taxi and hackney services, as well as air and marine transport accessible to people with mobility, sensory and cognitive impairments.

The Minister said that currently over 50% of the Dublin Bus fleet is comprised of low floor, wheelchair accessible buses servicing over 50 of its routes. The company will continue to introduce new accessible buses on a route-by-route basis with a view to its entire fleet being wheelchair accessible by 2012.

Practically all of Bus Éireann's fleet in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford is low floor and wheelchair accessible. The company will continue to buy only wheelchair accessible buses for its urban services as the fleet is replaced and expanded. In addition, Bus Éireann will replace all vehicles with wheelchair accessible buses throughout the country their goal being 2012.

Accessible coaches are only becoming commercially available and Minister Gallagher has had an opportunity in recent times to view some of these coaches in conjunction with members of the Public Transport Accessibility Committee. Minister Gallagher said: "The Department of Transport with the assistance of a team under the Public Transport Accessibility Committee, including Bus Éireann, the National Disability Authority and a representative of the private bus and coach operators, is monitoring developments in the design and availability of accessible coaches." The outcome of their discussions will determine future procurement policy.

Bus Éireann has agreed to acquire a number of the coaches considered most suitable from an accessibility point of view, while meeting the service providers' other operational requirements.

These coaches will be trialled on routes with the full involvement of the Public Transport Accessibility Committee. The trials will be conducted in consultation with the local authorities with regard to bus stop space to allow for wheelchair access, street signage, location of stops etc. The trials will also include a full assessment and identification of actions necessary to meet the fixed infrastructure requirements. Minister Gallagher is anxious that Bus Éireann moves as quickly as possible after these trials to procure accessible coaches.

The Minister said that consultations with the representatives of the main coach operating groups in preparing the Sectoral Plan for Transport "identified a robust commitment on their parts to deliver accessible services in line with the availability of the necessary vehicles."

There is ongoing upgrading of bus stops in co-ordination with the local authorities on roads where wheelchair accessible buses are in service or being phased in. Bus stops are also being upgraded in Dublin, with some 750 now completed.

An accessibility refurbishment programme to make the existing railway stations accessible is underway on a railway line by railway line basis. Practically all stations on the Dublin suburban DART line are now upgraded. Iarnród Éireann is in the process of making all its suburban trains accessible to people with disabilities by 2007 and its intercity passenger trains accessible by 2009.

As Transport 21 brings Ireland's transport system into a modern 21st Century era, the Sectoral Plan will work in conjunction with the investment programme of Transport 21. This will be achieved principally in two ways; accessibility will be built into new transport infrastructural projects and the acquisition of accessible vehicles; and funding will continue to be provided to enable the phased adaptation or retrofit of existing transport facilities.

In the implementation of the Plan, transport projects will be monitored for compliance with accessibility principles. The Public Transport Accessibility Committee, comprising the Department of Transport, transport operators and the disability sector, will be fully involved in the implementation process. Minister Gallagher said: "The real challenge for the coming period is the implementation of the Plan and its full implementation is a crucial contribution to social and economic inclusion in Ireland."

The Department's Sectoral Plan will be reviewed every two years. A senior official of the Department of Transport has been appointed with specific responsibility for transport accessibility.

ENDS

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