merrion street

Minister of State with responsibility for public and commuter transport, Alan Kelly TD this morning launched an innovative online facility linking up consumers with rural transport services in the Sligo-Leitrim area.

Funded by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, www.ruraltravel.ie is a new online booking service that substantially augments the existing Rural Transport Scheme in the Sligo-Leitrim area. The service can be used to meet any transport needs of those in the area from shopping and recreation to appointments and hospital visits. Transport providers use wheelchair-accessible bus, taxi and hackney services. A volunteer community car scheme service is also available.

Speaking today, Minister Kelly said: "The proposal from Sligo-Leitrim to develop this new service is a perfect example of what my Department’s Smarter Travel Demonstration Project Fund set out to achieve. This project will develop synergies between rural transport planning and delivery and the end-customer. It’s a great example of smarter thinking to deliver smarter travel. The delivery of an efficient, accessible, flexible transport services to connect passengers with local villages and towns has already made a difference through this wonderful project.

Ms. Camilla Smyth, Co-ordinator of the Sligo-Leitrim Smarter Travel Project said: "The interactive map and timetable on ruraltravel.ie uses real time information which passengers can use to plan their journey from home to their local village or town with the option of connecting with mainstream Bus Eireann and Irish Rail services for onward journeys. In recent times, we have witnessed a significant increase in passengers using our services so this new online service, together with our Twitter and Facebook pages should bring ruraltravel.ie to an even wider audience."

There are more than 70 scheduled rural transport services in Sligo and Leitrim per week, delivering approximately 8,000 passenger journeys per month or 96,000 journeys per year.

The Minister concluded by saying that; "I am very pleased with the outcome of this project and in particular with the opportunity to see it in operation today. I am sure other communities around the country will study it with interest with a view to implementing a similar system for the Rural Transport Programmes in their area."