Half price public transport fares for young adults from Monday

Public transport fares for young people will be permanently reduced by 50 per cent from Monday, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has said.

The reduction is in addition to the 20 per cent decrease in fares for all public transport journeys in the Greater Dublin Area, which also takes effect from Monday.

Fares outside of Dublin were already reduced by 20 per cent in April.

The reduction is a short-term measure in response to the rising cost of living, and will be in place until the end of the year. It is the first national fare reduction since 1947.

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The new youth fare structure, which was announced in the Budget, will apply to all subsidised public transport journeys on Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, Bus Eireann, Luas, Go-Ahead Ireland and Local Link.

Under the scheme for young people, the cost of a short journey will be 65c, while the TFI 90-minute journeys will cost €1.

For those outside of those age group in Dublin, the 90-minute fare will fall to €2 for adults and 65c for children.

Adults aged 19 to 23 are eligible for the half-price fares, with eligibility continuing up to the day before their 24th birthday.

When the additional 20 per cent fare reduction on all public transport announced as part of the government’s cost of living support last February is also applied, public transport costs for young adults will cost 60 per cent less, until the end of this year.

For holders of a current student leap card, no action is required as the reduced fare will be deducted from their card in the normal way.

Non-student young adults looking to avail of the lower fares will need to apply for a young adult Leap card online.

Customers aged under 19 can benefit from the child 16-18 leap card, which is valid up to the day before their 19th birthday.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan described the fare cuts as "unprecedented and quite radical".

“When I announced a permanent 50 per cent fare reduction for young adults in Budget 2022, I really wanted to make public transport more attractive for young people, so that using public transport could become a habit of a lifetime,” he said.

“I also wanted to go some way to supporting young people, by making day-to-day life a little bit more affordable.”

He added: “I believe strongly that it’s the way we need to go if we are serious about putting low-carbon transport at the heart of our efforts to build a sustainable future and if we want to bring people, and particularly young people, with us on that journey.”

Anne Graham, chief executive of the NTA, said they looked forward to seeing more young adults using public transport.

“There’s particularly good news for rail commuters in Cork with Mallow being brought into the commuter rail fares area in Cork. This means that a student or young adult can travel from Mallow to any station within the Cork commuter area for just €1.95 when paying with leap,” she said.

“Value for money is not the only factor that gets people on to public transport, but it is an important one, and we do know that cutting fares to such an extent will make public transport more attractive to more young adults.”