End of the line for silver trekkers?

DISCOUNT SCHEMES:THE DETERIORATING financial situation has cast doubt over the future of the free rail travel scheme for older tourists.

The Golden Tracker scheme allows all overseas visitors aged 66 or over to benefit from unlimited travel on main line, Dart and commuter trains.

It was introduced as a one-year pilot scheme by fáilte Ireland and Iarnród Éireann in March and is currently under review.

However, while the tourism agency is in favour of the scheme continuing, the rail company is less enthusiastic.

Asked if it believed the scheme should continue, Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny said “the deteriorating financial position we face in Iarnród Éireann means we cannot commit to the scheme beyond the end of this year”.

Some 12,000 free tickets were provided to tourists between mid-March and mid-September and fáilte Ireland expects that this figure will have risen to 15,000 by the end of the year.

A four-day unlimited rail ticket is usually worth €100 which means that by the end of the year, the scheme will have provided free travel worth about €1.5 million to older tourists. Iarnród Éireann said it couldn’t continue to forfeit this level of revenue.

“The scheme when subsequently adopted in Northern Ireland does provide there for payment to the rail operator, and we would give the continuation of the scheme beyond the end of this year consideration if that were replicated here, via a payment from fáilte Ireland,” Kenny said.

Asked if Iarnród Éireann wanted to foot the entire bill or just provide a contribution to it, Kenny said he could not elaborate on that at the moment.

The scheme was announced as part of last December’s budget in an effort to increase visitor numbers. A Department of Tourism spokesman said the review of the scheme was due to be completed shortly. “The final decision as to whether the Golden Tracker scheme will be continued beyond the end of the year will be made having regard to the resources available to the tourism agencies and Iarnród Éireann, the operational demands of the scheme on those bodies and the outcome of the review, including an assessment of its overall impact on visitor intentions.”