Rail accounts for just 1.4% of all journeys, report finds

Irish people are still wedded to their car – despite significant increases in cycling in Dublin – and spreading the attraction of “sustainable transport” outside the capital remains a challenge.

That is according to the latest overview of the transport sector published by the Department of Transport on Friday. As expected it found growth in economic activity was reflected in the growth in passenger numbers on principal transport modes, with significant increases in air, land and sea travel.

However, the review also found that 74 per cent of all journeys across the State were taken by car, with bus accounting for just 4.4 per cent and combined rail, Dart and Luas accounted for a mere 1.4 per cent.

In fact cycling, at 1.6 per cent represented more journeys than the combined figures for rail. Walking represented 14.8 per cent of all journeys.

The report also found:

a) Passenger journey numbers on the main public transport services, Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, Bus Éireann and Luas increased from 208 million in 2012 to 224.1 million in 2015. There was an increase of 3.6 per cent or 7.7 million passenger journeys last year.

b) 25 million passenger journeys were recorded at Dublin Airport in 2015, a 15 per cent increase on the previous year and record high.

c) 2,240 bikes are provided through public bike schemes in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. The number of journeys on the service in Dublin has increased from 1.7 million in 2013 to 4.1 million in 2015.

d) Freight demand is increasing. There was a 6.9 per cent annual increase in the tonne-kilometres of road freight, a 1.6 per cent increase in the gross tonnage of goods handled at ports and an 8.5 per cent increase in air freight handled at the main airports.

e) Emissions from the transport sector increased by 2.5 per cent in 2014 to a total of 11.3 million tonnes of Co2 equivalent.

Taxation

The report notes “taxation revenue associated with the transport sector has consistently outstripped expenditure”. According to provisional figures for 2015 revenue reached €4.55 billion, an annual increase of 2.6 per cent – significantly above the Department of Transport spend of €1.62 billion.

Tax revenue peaked in 2007 at €5 billion mainly driven by Vehicle Registration Tax which went from €1.4 billion in 2007 to €379 million in 2012. It has since recovered to €648 million in 2015.

The estimated weekly household expenditure on transport is €116.31 or 14 per cent of expenditure.

The number of journeys on the Dublin Bikes scheme increased from 1.2 million in 2010 to 4.1 million in 2015 – and since 2009 there has been 900km of decimated cycleway developed. Since 2002 the total number of cycle trips to secondary school has fallen by 41 per cent to a modal share of just 2 per cent, according to the 2011 census figures.

However, Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe said the report “highlights a number of positive developments in 2015”.

He singled out the extra 7.7 million passenger journeys on key public transport services; a 36 per cent increase in the number of Dublin Bikes journeys; and a 15 per cent growth in the number of passenger journeys at Dublin Airport.

“The report also points towards the challenges we continue to face, including the dominance of private car use and the increasing level of emissions from the transport sector,” he said.