There are renewed calls for a new €9 per month Cork public transport ticket to encourage people back on to the city’s buses.
It comes as figures show Cork people made nearly three million fewer bus journeys last year than in 2019 – a trend that appears to be continuing this year.
Figures released to Cork Deputy Sean Sherlock by the National Transport Authority (NTA) show that nearly 14 million bus journeys were made in Cork last year.
That is nearly three million fewer than were made in 2019.
The figures show that bus journey halved in the city during the pandemic and have failed to fully recover since restrictions were lifted.
Speaking to RedFM News, Labour Party representative for Cork City, Peter Horgan said people are out of the habit of using buses:
“It is a matter of trying to get people back out of the habit of relying on the car,” he said.
“When COVID came in, there was a sharp decrease in public transport use because of the public health concerns and people trying to stay off public transport and public places.
“That is an overhang of COVID; we need to break that now.
“We need a better information campaign. We have the national information campaign of ‘Your Journey Counts’ but what I want to see is a Cork city-lead public information campaign that encourages people on to our transport.”
The Labour Party wants a €9 monthly unlimited public transport ticket to be trialled in Cork, following the success of a similar ticket in Germany.
