The head of the National Transport Authority said today that 2015 should be the last year that passengers face a significant fare increase.
Gerry Murphy, the NTA’s chief executive officer, said the body hoped future increases would be more moderate, with “inflation plus 1%” as the model for prices in 2016 and beyond.
Mr Murphy says the NTA formulated any annual increase based on submissions made by the transport companies in July. The figures are what the NTA estimates is required to maintain the current services offered to passengers for the next 12 months.
Transport companies will also be expected to cut costs and run more efficiently, Mr Murphy said.
The NTA attributes the significant fare increases of the past few years to two factors: two of the four transport companies operate at an unavoidable loss, and three of them are burdened with debt repayments from previous years' deficits.
“In the perfect world, the fare increases would be more closely tied to the consumer price index. And operating at a loss is an issue. Irish Rail's problems won't be fixed by fare increases,” Mr Murphy said.
The NTA said that because the government's budget for 2015 maintained the same level of state funding to transport services as last year, 2015's fare change was much lower than it could have been. This was the first time since 2009 that state funds were uncut.
Today's news comes after the NTA approved a significant fare increase yesterday across bus, rail and tram networks; Irish Rail fares rose by an average of 9% for DART, short-hop commuter services and Intercity trains, while Cork commuter services saw a 4% increase.
On roads, Bus Éireann will push up prices by an average of 3.5%, and Dublin Bus by 10%.
On Luas trams, passengers will see some tickets cost more than 6% from January 1st.
