A SENIOR civil servant has warned that the viability of Translink is “in jeopardy”.
Speaking to a Stormont committee, John McGrath, from the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), said while Translink had managed to maintain the rail and bus network by drawing on its reserves, it was now “running out of options”.
The department’s deputy secretary told the Infrastructure committee that if no further investment is provided to Translink, it faces going into 2021 with a deficit of around £28m.
“I doubt there are the savings to balance the books and yet run the network,” Mr McGrath said.
“But it won’t be things at the margins, you’re talking about hacking at the bone.”
Mr McGrath said the department had estimated that it needs around £800m in the next financial year to cover its existing commitments, adding that future pledges contained in the New Decade, New Approach deal would require “an awful lot more”.
Ulster Unionist MLA Roy Beggs asked what options there were for Translink in the short-term, if additional money was not provided.
Mr McGrath said: “If you ended up only running what was profitable you’re talking about bits of Metro, some of the Goldline routes or you could look at – it’s not in a scenario anywhere – but you’d just close down the railway.
“The scale of it means, in our view, the continued viability of the public transport network is in jeopardy.”
A Translink spokeswoman said it would “continue to work with DfI to ensure sustained levels of public service obligation and concessionary fares funding going forward to maintain high quality public transport”
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