The Northern Ireland Executive has been accused of reneging on its pledge to update the province’s transport provision.

Local lobby group Transport 2000 has said that the Executive has gone back on its promise to replace 178 of the oldest buses still being used on Ulster’s roads. Transport 2000 claims that the official pledge to replace the vehicles appeared in the draft version of the Executive’s Programme for Government, but has now been dropped from the final version of the publication, which states that only 25 buses will be replaced each year.

Regional representative of Transport 2000, Liz Fawcett, said that it was ‘ironic’ that while the Executive has introduced free travel for pensioners, it will not spend money on improving the service that such people are expected to use.

She continued: “In England, the Government has promised to get the average age of buses down to eight years. Here, the average age of the Ulsterbus large bus fleet is almost 13 years. If a mere 25 buses a year are replaced, the fleet is actually going to get older.”

Transport 2000 has also promised to push forward the issue of ‘transport poverty’ in rural areas of the province, citing an estimate that 40 per cent of such households suffer from inadequate transport provision by Ulsterbus.

“The Executive needs to start matching its fine words on public transport with action,” added Liz Fawcett, “by devoting a higher percentage of its transport and infrastructure to bus or rail.” (CL)