This article is from page 37 of the 2008-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 37 JPG
A licence has been awarded for the operation of new bus service for the town of Ennis.
The privately operated bus service will provide 13 services from the town centre to the eastern residential area of Ennis; 12 services from the eastern residential area to the town centre; 13 routes from the town cen- tre to the western residential area and 12 from the western residential area to the town centre.
Town Clerk Eddie Power told the May meeting of Ennis Town Coun- cil that the service is expected to commence soon but, that it was un- known whether Bus Eireann would be involved.
He said, “The council decided in
2007 to conduct a feasibility study to look at providing a bus service for Ennis. Because we were aware that both Bus Eireann and a private Operator were examining the possi- bility we didn’t go through with the study.”
He continued, “A license has been granted to a private operator. Bus Eireann have made no decision yet. We would expect the service to com- mence in the near future”.
Concerns were expressed though over the potential “cherry-picking” of routes. Urging the council to carry out the feasibility study Fine Gael councillor Johnny Flynn said, “We can’t sit around and wait. You could find a situation where the private op- erator will just cherry pick the routes that are most commercially viable
around the town.”
He continued, “I wish the private operator well, but Ennis Town Coun- cil should be leading the way on this.” Independent councillor Frank- ie Neylon called for Bus Eireann to get involved in the scheme.
He said, “The private operator should be looking towards Ennis Town Council. We should be able to tell him better than the department. We need a bus service for all outly- ing areas that are highly populated and we need them on the hour.”
He added, “Bus Eireann would be in a better position to have more bus- es available. A private operator can always pull out.”
Town Manager Tom Coughlan said the involvement of Bus Eireann was predicated on the availability
of funds through the Government’s Transport 21 initiative, which at the moment weren’t forthcoming.
He said, “We met with Bus Shier tat last year and in March Bus Eireann advised us that funding was allocated under Transport 21. We understand that money isn’t available through that yet.”
Fianna Fail councillor Tom Glynn said, ““Where a bus service has been provided, there has been a huge per- centage in uptake. We have to pro- vide Ennis with a bus service and it definitely needs to be as good as possible.”
Fianna Fail councillor Peter Consi- dine said, “The reason any previous service failed is because of irregular- ity. Any feasibility study would be a waste of money”.