Plans for town bus service at a standstill

The planned Mullingar town bus service - which was to have begun in September - may not now go ahead at all, a Westmeath County Council official has admitted this week.George Lambden, director of services with the Council, said that the launch has been held up by a 'glitch' in the licensing system.However, he continued, 'legal difficulties' may mean the service will have to be shelved entirely.If that does happen, then the council will consider trying to pique the interest of Bus Éireann, despite the fact that they failed to even tender for the route in May of last year.'There are just some legal technicalities about providing licences to local authorities for bus routes,' said Mr Lambden.'It is the case that these may not be able to be resolved and one consideration would be to approach Bus Éireann as they would hold permits as the national transport service.The "red route", as it is to be known, was due to be up and running by September 2008 and was to tie in with the new school year.But the service which was planned to run between Greenpark in Mullingar West and Lidl in Mullingar East is currently at a standstill because of the department"s red tape.Farrelly Coaches, based at Longford, said this morning that a 25 seater bus and driver had been ready to start for months but the company had been told that the halt was due to a technical problem with the licensing application to the Department of Transport. Farrellys won the tender to supply the service from Westmeath County Council in May 2008,'We are all set to go and are just waiting for word,' said owner Liam Farrelly. 'The route was to have one bus initially but we are hoping that it will extend to at least three, criss-crossing the town.'