PHOTOS: Kildare Councillors, Senators and locals protest outside Newbridge Train Station

A number of Kildare county councillors, TDs, Senators and concerned locals protested outside of Newbridge Train Station on Friday, July 12 last.

Last week, it was announced by Transport for Ireland (TFI) that the implementation of the new zonal structure would be delayed to the first quarter of 2025.

This decision has led to an outcry from critics, and as a result, a protest commenced outside the station at 6pm, and featured a number of  public representatives across all political parties.

Representatives who attended the protest included: Martin Heydon TD and Mayor of Newbridge, Cllr Peggy O Dwyer, from Fine Gael; Senator Fiona O'Loughlin and Cllr Noel Heavey from Fianna Fáil; Patrician Ryan TD, activist James Stokes, Cllr Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh and Cllr Killian Brennan from Sinn Fein; Senator Mark Wall and activist Aina Conway from the Labour Party; Cllr Chris Pender from the Social Democrats; activist Ronan Maher from the Green Party and activist Melissa Byrne from Aontú.

CONTEXT

Explaining the background of the campaign, Jennifer Caffrey, a member of the Extend the Short Hop Zone - Newbridge & Surrounding Areas Commuters Group, said: "I represent a campaign started over two years ago to reduce fares and increase access to public transport to residents in Newbridge, Kildare town and surrounding areas.

"As a resident of South Kildare, we welcomed the announcement of the new fare structure in 2023 which outlined the new Dublin Commuter Zone that will extend to Kildare town and include a fairer distance based fare calculation and multimode fare capping.

"We also welcome the fares determination in January 2024 which outlined the applied the PSO (Public Service Obligation budget to reduce fares) to the Dublin Commuter Zone."

Ms Caffrey continued: "In January, with the publication of the fares determination we were advised that roll out of the reduced fares & the formal introduction of the new zone (Dublin Commuter Zone) would not be in place until Quarter 3 2024 (September), due to technical tasks at stations that needed to be completed as leap cards would be used at these stations going forward to charge fares. 

"Ministers and Senators were briefed by the National Transport Authority three weeks ago, the September date was reiterated at that point.

Jennifer Caffrey (centre) speaking at the protest.

"Last week, when questioned in the Dáil, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan again mentioned September as the date for a roll out of the new Dublin Commuter zone.

"A resident in Newbridge has received a response from the NTA following an email enquiry on the implementation date; that email states that implementation has been pushed to January 2025. 

"A delay of this nature is unacceptable, students, workers and families have made life choices, budgets, taken up employment and college places based on these fare reductions of up to 45 per cent coming in in September."

"Any delay beyond September will put education and work opportunities for our residents are not put at risk," she concluded.

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QUESTIONS

According to Ms Caffrey, the group has two main questions.

For the first question: "Where are Newbridge and Kildare town in the roll out schedule for town buses?"

For the second question: "From the 80 page fares determination document it states that the fare capping for Dublin Commuter Zones is based on 2.5 journeys.

"How is fare capping applied to travel within a zone or within outer zones? For example, there are a lot of commuters who travel from Naas to Newbridge to work, Naas to Kildare, or Kildare to Newbridge or Naas.

"Is there fare capping for travel within a zone? It is not specified in the fare determination document."

In addition, Ms Caffrey claimed that many residents are 'locked out' from accessing the train 'as there currently is no reliable and frequent public transport to the station.'

She said:"Many people rely on lifts to the station or taxis.

"Nearby in Sallins, there is a bus that runs from Naas to Sallins via the town centre through housing estates and is included in the train fare.

"The orbital buses for Newbridge are needed urgently for us to realise value in this new fare and for social justice and access for all in our town."

Ms Caffrey also included some comments from local residents who told her about the impact of not having a bus to the station.

• "I'm living the Naas road end of town and have limited mobility and have to rely on taxis to get me to and from the station for my appointments in Dublin. I have had to cancel some appointments as I've not been able to get a taxi to get me to the station."
• "I recently moved to Belin woods in Newbridge with my family of small children, we do not have a car. My family want to come to visit us from Dublin they have mobility issues and from the train station a taxi is their only option to get to our house. They have waited up to an hour to get a taxi , along with the cost of the return journey it's putting them off coming to visit us. I didn't think a town of this size (25,000) would not have a town bus."
• "I recently moved to Newbridge without a car from Dublin. My husband and I never had a car however there is no bus to get to shops, the train station or other ends of the town. We use bikes but there are not adequate bike lanes or places to secure our bicycles. We have started to take driving lessons and will have to buy a car as were greatly restricted in this town without a bus"
• "We moved to Newbridge five years ago, our children now teenagers. Their friends in Dublin and Maynooth have a lot more freedom with access to more frequent public transport to get them to school and activities. I have to drive a lot to get them around, to the train station and to school. A town bus would give them the independence their peers have." 

'WE NEED TO KEEP THE PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT'

Commenting after the protest, James Stokes told the Leader: "When I was campaigning in the local elections, it was welcomed across the town about the reduction in fares.

"This delay is ridiculous, I was glad to be at the protest on Friday, standing up for a cross-party, community-driven campaign."

Melissa Byrne echoed similar sentiments: "This protest was incredibly important because you have to keep these issues in the public spotlight in order for them to get any sort of movement.

"We've been waiting to see the extension of the Short Hop Zone in Newbridge for a very long time and to see it pushed back again is incredibly frustrating."

Ms Byrne continued: "We need to keep the pressure on the government to find the money to bring this scheme in as planned this year.

"If we want to resolve traffic issues by encouraging public transport uptake then it needs to be an afforable and attractive option.

"This scheme should have automatically been extended to Athy and Monasterevin to better support their commuters and it's disappointing that the government and the NTA have excluded them from this.

"I would encourage everyone to keep the pressure on with their elected representatives because we need to have affordable rail fares in Kildare."

"It was constructive in the sense that it keeps it the issue in the spotlight and Jennifer Caffrey gave a great speech on pushing this forward and the next steps to take... whether it was really constructive will depend on what the NTA and the government come back with as a solution," she concluded.