There could be an explanation for this in that when the recession hit a few years ago, a Dept of Transport decision was made that no new routes would benefit from the free travel scheme.
One consequence was that a new Aircoach route from Ballinteer to Dublin Airport gave no discount to travelpass holders whereas other established routes from Greystones, Stillorgan etc still had free travel facilities. Apart from the fact that extension of free travel to what is a premium service was probably a bit of Celtic Tiger madness, the unequal treatment of the different routes was crazy. A uniform 50% discount for all Aircoach routes would have been better in my opinion.
Back to Longford-Cavan: are the new operators giving a 50% discount without any State subsidy? It just might make commercial sense in marginal cost terms depending on how pensioners respond to the offer. If they are getting a subsidy in respect of offering the discount, this is a radical new departure from the free travel scheme.
As usual in Ireland, there is no explanation, no rationale, no transparency, just make it up as you go along.
|