Rural local link evening bus service begins – Heydon

Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party Martin Heydon TD has today (Friday) confirmed the pilot local link evening rural bus service has begun.

New evening services in Kildare between Newbridge and Athy began on Thursday night – less than seven months after the idea was first mooted.

The service, operating for the first time on an exploratory basis, will take passengers between several south Kildare towns and villages every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening until the end of the year.

“When I first made the proposal last Autumn on behalf of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party, to Transport Minister Shane Ross, for the extension of evening rural bus services around the country, I wanted to highlight the benefits of increased connectivity in our rural areas. I was delighted yesterday (Thursday) to view the local link bus in action in my own constituency as it brought passengers from the first stop outside Dunnes Stores in Newbridge through Kildare town, Nurney, Kildangan, Kilberry and into Athy,” Deputy Heydon said today.

“This is a new service and I hope it will benefit those who wish to get out and about in the evenings. As it is a pilot scheme, the more it is used, the better chance it has of being retained,” the Fine Gael TD added.

Fifty new bus services across 19 counties will be rolled out as part of a six-month pilot programme. The routes in the 19 counties to benefit are; Wexford (12 routes), Kerry (eight routes), Carlow/Kilkenny/Wicklow (six routes), Cavan/Monaghan (five routes), Donegal (four routes), Laois/Offaly (three routes), Cork (three routes), Waterford (three routes), Louth/Meath/Dublin (two routes), Tipperary (two routes), Kildare (one route) and Longford/Westmeath (one route).

“In Kildare the timing of the routes are set to coincide with national train services and for staff at Kildare Village for when they finish work. There is immense flexibility in our rural transport network to support local residents. The potential this has for those who want to visit or attend nursing homes, GAA clubs, shopping centres, restaurants, pubs, social events is vast and should be utilised,” Deputy Heydon said.

“I would encourage all those living along the new routes around the country to try out the new evening services and ensure it is a success.

“I strongly believe our rural transport network has the potential to link many parts of rural Ireland and improve connectivity for rural dwellers around the country, if it is properly structured and resourced.

“These new evening routes are a great example of what can be achieved and I hope that all public representatives – no matter what their political persuasion – will support a scheme that can only benefit communities across the country,” Deputy Heydon added.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• Following a funding call for applications to all 17 Local Link Offices to deliver a range of trial evening and night time services, the NTA received 50 proposals from 12 of the Local Link Offices. [The NTA will engage further with the 5 Local Link Offices that did not respond].
• Having appraised the applications received, the NTA has now approved funding for all 50 new services on a 6 month trial basis.
• The services comprise 20 extensions to existing regular public transport routes and 30 demand responsive services, across 19 counties.
• They will add 188 new trips per week to the network of rural transport services nationally, and will run on average from 6pm to 11pm, typically on Friday and Saturday evenings.
• The NTA plans to have all 50 services operational by end June 2018, running until December 2018 on a trial basis.  The results of the trial will be assessed and the continuation of these services will be considered in the light of those results and the availability of funding in 2019.
• The total cost of funding these services for the 6 month period in 2018 is €450,000.