I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the invitation to attend. I understand the committee wishes to focus upon accessibility of our public transport services. To assist me in dealing with their subsequent questions I am joined by Hugh Creegan, deputy chief executive officer with the authority.
Before dealing with the specific areas of focus, I would like to set the context by providing a brief overview of the remit of the authority in this provision and regulation of public transport services. The remit of the NTA is to regulate and develop the provision of integrated public transport services - bus, rail, light rail and taxi - by public and private operators in the State to encourage the development and implementation of an integrated accessible transport system within the greater Dublin area and to contribute to the effective integration of transport and land use planning across the State. In addition to its statutory responsibilities, the authority has various arrangements with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to discharge functions on its behalf. This includes the assignment to the authority of the management of the public transport accessibility investment programme.
In terms of accessibility of public transport services, they are largely determined by when particular services or infrastructure came into existence. Accordingly, older public transport infrastructure is largely not accessible or has limited accessibility features. However, more recent infrastructure is designed and built with the needs of disabled users in mind. The NTA is actively committed to ensuring that new public transport services and infrastructure are fully accessible. We are committed to securing the retrofitting of all older public transport infrastructure as quickly as resources will allow.
As for the current public transport infrastructure, the city bus fleet is now 100% low floor wheelchair accessible and will be maintained so by means of the infrastructure investment programme, with boarding arrangements, seating and internal layout addressing the needs of all passengers. The fleet purchased in recent years in Dublin has a wheelchair space, as well as a buggy space. The difficulty on some city services is the availability of the wheelchair space. The NTA is supporting a multi-agency initiative, launched in October 2017, of a new awareness campaign which highlights the importance of the dedicated wheelchair zone on every Dublin Bus. The initiative aims to demonstrate the negative consequences that can affect a wheelchair user if they are unable to access the wheelchair zone on Dublin Bus services and encourages commuters to leave the wheelchair zone vacant for those who need it most.
In terms of the regional bus fleet, regional bus services are primarily delivered by single-deck or double-deck coaches. The double-deck coaches are accessible by ramp but require the removal of seats to provide the wheelchair space and the required restraint. The remaining coach fleet that is accessible uses an external wheelchair lift to lift the passenger onto the high floor of the coach. Approximately 86% of Bus Éireann’s coach fleet is wheelchair accessible. That percentage will increase as the coach fleet is replaced. As this fleet requires the removal of seats, 24-hour notice of travel is required. With regard to bus stops, all city bus stops are fully accessible as they can be served by wheelchair ramp and kneeling suspension on buses. In regional cities they are wheelchair accessible where there is a hard standing at the stop. A bus stop that can facilitate the operation of a wheelchair lift from a high-floor coach requires a minimum of 3 m space to the back of the footpath. Currently, very few bus stops that receive coach services have this space.
A number of bus stations are currently accessible but more work is required on some of the key bus stations. Real-time arrival information is available for each stop on bus and rail services on the web, the smart phone app and SMS messaging service. Currently, visual and audible next stop announcements are not available on all bus services other than Dublin Bus services.
Approximately 10% of public transport services are delivered by commercial operators licensed by the NTA. In the annual returns we have received from those operators for 2016 services, 16% of the services had low-floor wheelchair accessible vehicles while a further 28% had vehicles with lifts suitable for wheelchair access.
In terms of the rural transport programme, those services are operated and managed by the NTA and the 17 LocalLink offices and are largely wheelchair accessible. LocalLink now provides demand-responsive services under the rural transport programme, which provides a high level of support to the public. These are door-to-door services that are suitable for those who have a disability and may also have passenger assistance on board. The NTA has invested in improving the wheelchair lifts on the fleet owned by the rural transport companies. The current services are being retendered in 2017 and 2018 with a provision that all services must be fully wheelchair-accessible within two years of contract award.
All the Luas services have been designed to be fully accessible.
As for heavy rail services, all of the fleet operated by Iarnród Éireann is fully accessible internally. The main issue with accessibility for wheelchairs is that a ramp is required between the platform and the carriage and not all rail stations are accessible. Accordingly, 24 hours' notice of travel must be given currently to ensure access for wheelchair users on all rail services. Iarnród Éireann has recently introduced a pilot scheme, which results in the notice being reduced to four hours, and a review will be undertaken following the pilot to see how it was received by customers.
Of the 144 stations on the Iarnród Éireann network, 118 have received accessibility upgrades or were constructed new to full accessibility standards such that all platforms are accessible, with the remaining 26 stations having one platform accessible.
An accessibility audit carried out in 2014 identified 54 stations across the network that require accessibility enhancements. Since 2015, a number of stations had accessibility enhancement works completed, including Kilcock, Enfield and Maynooth. Improvements include signage, new footpaths and elimination of steps. Further works commenced in 2017 on a number of other stations.
Installation of a fully accessible lift and associated works at platform 6-7 in Connolly Station, which was identified as one of the major accessibility issues on the rail network, were completed in 2016 and the lift has been fully operational since then.
Next stop announcements, both visual and audible, are available on all intercity and commuter rail services. However, the next stop announcements on the DART service is not up to the required standard and needs replacement.
The National Transport Authority continues to support the travel assistance scheme, which is managed by Dublin Bus.
The scheme aims to give people with disabilities confidence to use public transport. Under the scheme, an assistant can accompany people who need help using public transport and to plan a journey on Dublin Bus, Luas and DART. Over 1,000 individuals availed of the scheme in 2016 and a total of €200,000 was allocated to the scheme in 2017.
The availability of a wheelchair-accessible taxi fleet has been falling in line with the decline in numbers of licensed vehicles and licensed drivers in the industry. A number of measures have been introduced to increase the number of wheelchair accessible vehicles in the fleet. Since 2010, the only new vehicle licences issued are for wheelchair-accessible vehicles; new regulations were introduced in 2014 to allow smaller and less-expensive wheelchair-accessible vehicles to operate as taxis and hackneys; and a grant system for wheelchair-accessible vehicles was put in place offering grants of up to €10,000 for the purchase of or conversion to a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, WAV. The WAV grant scheme has operated from 2014 and the success of the grant scheme is demonstrated by an increase in the number of WAVs in the small public service vehicle fleet from 860 in June 2014 to 1,555 in December 2017, which now represents 7.6% of the total fleet. One of the conditions attaching to the scheme is that all recipients of the grant must successfully complete a disability awareness training programme, which is provided free of charge by the Irish Wheelchair Association on behalf of the NTA. There are strict terms and conditions attaching to the WAV grant scheme to ensure that accessible vehicles are used for the intended purpose. Disability awareness training is provided by all transport operators and disability user groups have been established by all public transport providers. An accessibility officer has also been appointed across all operators.
As that is the current status, what needs to be done?
The funding available in recent years has been considerably constrained, which resulted in difficult choices and prioritisation of projects. However, the four-year capital envelope for public transport announced in budget 2018 includes a multi-annual allocation of almost €28 million for the accessibility retrofit programme for the period 2018 to 2021. This funding is a trebling of the previous allocation for accessibility under the capital plan. This will facilitate the continued roll-out of the programmes to install accessible bus stops, the upgrading of train stations to make them accessible to wheelchair users and the grant scheme to support the introduction of more wheelchair-accessible vehicles into the taxi fleet and many of the projects I intend to outline.
As for the bus fleet, the high-floor coaches currently available do not offer a good customer experience to wheelchair users. There does not seem to be many alternatives to this type of fleet for long distance inter-urban services. Together with Bus Éireann, we propose a change in our fleet strategy for shorter regional commuter services of less than 50 km. In future, these services could be operated by low-floor single-deck vehicles, rather than high-floor coaches. We are in the process of procuring the first of these vehicles with a low-floor ramp entry suitable for the mobility impaired with a dedicated wheelchair space and we expect them to be in service from 2019. With regard to commercial public transport services, now that the NTA has more knowledge of the fleet available to the Irish market,
the authority will move to regulate the accessibility of the public transport services operated by commercial operators. The authority will publish its proposals in this area later this year, which will set out minimum accessibility standards for fleets operating public transport services for new licences and on renewal of existing licences.
The authority is looking at ways to improve the journey information available to disabled users. The national journey planner features a wheelchair symbol for transport services that are known to be accessible. The authority is also looking into providing information on options for a step-free journey on the journey planner. This requires an audit of bus stops and other public transport infrastructure to determine their level of accessibility and this work is under way. The authority is in the process of standardising names of stops, which will be disseminated across all bus services. This will allow next-stop announcements to be made where the facility is available on the bus. Retrofitting of visual screens will be undertaken as required for the visual next-stop announcements.
In 2013, a comprehensive estimate of the cost of addressing accessibility issues at the various Bus Éireann bus stations was prepared. Excluding three particular stations - Busáras, Ceannt Station, Galway and Colbert Station, Limerick - the cost of addressing accessibility issues at the other bus stations was estimated at €11.5 million. Separate larger redevelopment plans have been prepared for Colbert Station, Limerick and Ceannt Station, Galway, both of which are shared bus and rail stations and these will include compliance with all accessibility standards as part of those redevelopments. The authority will work with Bus Éireann and CIÉ to ensure that a comprehensive programme of upgrading bus stations continues. Access to railway station buildings and platforms remains challenging at some locations. The authority will continue to fund accessibility upgrades at stations as funding allows.
With respect to bus stops for high-floor coach services, as I indicated, the wheelchair arrangements for high-floor vehicles require a large area of adjacent footpath to operate, typically between 3 m and 3.5 m in width. In many towns and villages, it is extremely challenging to achieve the necessary footpath width for the vehicle lift to function. Solutions such as relocating the bus stop to an alternative location may be necessary but this can give rise to additional problems, in that the alternative stop location may not suit other users. In other cases land or property acquisition may be required to obtain the necessary space, potentially requiring the exercise of compulsory acquisition powers to acquire the relevant lands. As a result of the complexity of determining the solution in each case and the need for extensive consultation with various parties, we do not have a singular figure for making all coach stops capable of accommodating wheelchair lifts on coaches. However, we will continue to upgrade the bus stops, where possible, to ensure that all main towns have at least one wheelchair lift-accessible bus stop in each direction.
With regard to taxis and hackneys, the NTA will continue to offer a WAV grant as long as funding is available to achieve a minimum of 10% of WAVs in the fleet by 2020. The DART fleet requires an upgrade of its next-stop announcements. In general, the communications to passengers on board the trains and particularly in stations needs to be improved. An upgrade of the on-board and at-station communications systems is estimated to cost in the region of €30 million. Work will commence shortly on scoping this project.
The authority is looking at the legislative changes required to allow the operators' by-laws to be changed to allow enforcement of priority for wheelchair users. Whereas much has been done to raise the level of accessibility across our public transport services, I acknowledge there is still work to do. Some of that work is challenging but the NTA is committed to meeting that challenge in partnership with our operating companies.
