Infrastructure and Services

7.1 Transportation Overview

7.1.1 Public Transport

There are 210 privately owned public transport vehicles operating in North Tipperary. There are 102 public service vehicles in operation on 177 licensed school transport routes for the Department of Education carrying nearly 5,850 children. An additional 15 private operators provide a school service. There are 8 Bus Éireann routes in North Tipperary complemented by 14 private licensed bus routes. A total of 25,638 people in the County currently hold a Free Travel Pass i.e. potentially 19.3% of the population of the County. This is substantially above the national average of 16.15%. (all above figures sourced from North Tipperary County Development Board 'Rural Passenger Transport Audit & Needs Assessment in North Tipperary')
North Tipperary is served reasonably well by rail network. Thurles and Templemore are on the national train network and avail of a frequent rail service. There are 13 daily services operating through Thurles and Templemore to Dublin from either Limerick or Cork. In addition there are two daily services operating to Dublin serving Roscrea, Nenagh, Cloghjordan and Birdhill.

There are eight Bus Éireann services operating in North Tipperary and these consist of three expressway routes and five local routes. The expressway services concentrate on the main routes through the County, such as the N7, from Limerick to Dublin and the N52 from Nenagh to Athlone. The N7 expressway services towns and villages on its route including Birdhill, Nenagh, Toomevara and Moneygall. The N52 expressway services Nenagh, Ardcroney, Borrisokane and Birr.

In addition to the Bus Éireann routes, there are also fourteen privately operated licensed routes in North Tipperary. Generally, Thurles is the focal point for the private operators and they service the east of North Tipperary where there is a low level of Bus Éireann service e.g. there are two daily services operating from the following towns; Clonmel to Nenagh and Urlingford to Thurles. These services generally operate twice daily and at times that allow access to work and training. There is also a weekend service operating from Thurles to Galway and from Urlingford to Roscrea. In addition, Nenagh and Borrisokane are connected by a private operator during school term.

7.1.2 Private Transport

The private car is the most important mode of transport in North Tipperary with 2,429 vehicles registered in 1999 and 3,025 vehicles registered between January and October 2000. Car ownership in North Tipperary, at 39 cars per 100 people, is above the national average. There are approximately 22,650 cars in North Tipperary and 34,675 people hold a driving license (i.e. potentially 60% of the population). In a recent survey, it was indicated that 5% of households in the County have no car, whilst 56% live in households with two or more vehicles.

The Council recognises the importance of the N7, N8, N52, N62, N65 and N75 to both the national and local economies. Table 7.1 shows the breakdown of the existing road network in the County. Approximately 5.6% of roads in the County are accounted for by National and Regional routes, and County roads account for the remaining 94.4% of all routes.

Road type	Length Km	% of Total
Table 7.1: Road Classification
National Primary	121	4.2
National Secondary	40	1.4
Regional	414	14.4
Local Primary	956	33.3
Local Secondary	894	31.1
Local Tertiary	446	15.5
Total	2871	100

With regard to maintaining the existing non-national roads, regional roads have a maintenance cycle of approximately once in ten years while Local Roads have a cycle of approximately once in 13 years (depending on demands that new housing and industrial developments place on the road maintenance programme and traffic safety).

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