2.6 | Facilitating Safe,

2.6 | Facilitating Safe, Accessible, Reliable and Efficient Travel on the Network

To support the continued vibrancy of rural Ireland, rural areas must be attractive places to live and work. This will mean ensuring reliable access to services and amenities, particularly for communities that are highly dependent on a small number of regionally important transport links. Given that transport in rural Ireland largely does not face capacity constraints, a key focus will be meeting maintenance requirements for existing infrastructure to provide a guaranteed level of connectivity to centres of scale. This will be supplemented by the targeted provision of new infrastructure and services where necessary.

Delivering a high level of service means the provision of a transport network that is safe, reliable, efficient and accessible. The growth in population forecast between now and 2040 will result in a significant increase in trips, for both people and goods. Investment in the land transport network must enable this growth without compromising on service levels. Moreover, investment must be financially sustainable, and among other things this means ensuring that the transport network is appropriate to the population’s needs rather than delivering high levels of excess capacity.

National Investment Framework for Transport in Ireland | Project Ireland 2040

In urban areas, NIFTI will support investments which allow people to access employment, services and leisure opportunities safely and within a reasonable time period. As with supporting other NSOs, this will mean encouraging modal shift though the provision of high-quality public transport and active travel facilities and reducing the need to travel by private car. It will also mean ensuring that new services and infrastructure are fully accessible and retrofitting existing infrastructure so that the entire transport system becomes accessible over time.

Moreover, many of Ireland’s strategic links are part of either the core or comprehensive Trans- European Transport Network (TEN-T). There are certain infrastructure requirements arising from the TEN-T Regulation, which will need to be considered in the context of future transport planning and investment.

Enhancing regional and rural accessibility, with improved services and reliable journey times to centres of scale, and pursuing compact growth are essential to ensuring that economic development and opportunity is distributed across the regions, with conditions that attract investment and foster opportunities for indigenous employment and enterprise growth.

On the interurban network, an objective of the NPF is to deliver average journey time speeds of 90km/h or better between all of Ireland’s cities and regional centres.2 In some instances this will mean the development of new infrastructure or upgrading of existing infrastructure, though addressing congestion on the key strategic links surrounding our cities will also be necessary to improve reliability. Investment in interurban bus and rail services can ensure accessibility to centres of scale for those who are unable to travel by car, while meeting asset protection and renewal requirements can help to ensure the safety of the network.