Madam, - In recent weeks many public transport users were informed of the significant increases in the cost of the annual travel passes managed by Dublin Bus, Luas and Irish Rail. My combined Luas and Dublin Bus card is going to increase from €980 this year to €1130 in 2009, approximately a 15 per cent increase. Similar increases have been introduced across all the ticket combinations.
The most recent CSO consumer price index (CPI) figures show inflation of 4.3 per cent with the transport component in the index actually decreasing. How can any service provider, let alone a public transport company, justify an increase of over three times the rate of inflation, especially with declining oil prices and with economists forecasting decreases in the rate of inflation for 2009? - Yours, etc,