Bus plans at a halt

By October 2007, Mullingar's long promised town bus service appeared to be well on the way. There have been a number of attempts made over the years by private entrepreneurs to establish a local bus service around Mullingar - the most recent about five years ago - but all have failed.Westmeath County Council, however, threw its weight behind the idea to establish a service for the town, and in 2007, carried out a survey to gauge the viability of a service which would run buses along three different routes around the town. The Council was hoping to have the service off the ground by the end of 2007.In May of last year, the Mullingar Area Committee was told that a pilot scheme would be ready to rock and roll by September 2008. Farrelly's of Longford had, after a tendering process was completed, been selected to act as operators of the service.That initial pilot route was to service areas between Greenpark, in the west of town, and the area near Lidl in the east but, as reported in this newspaper at the time, "the council stressed that this route would be just the beginning of a wider network of bus services which would be set up on the condition that the pilot scheme is successful".September came and went without any sign of the new service, and in January, the Council admitted to the Westmeath Examiner that the planned service might not go ahead at all, because of a glitch in the licensing system and other legal questions."There are just some legal technicalities about providing licences to local authorities for bus routes," said Mr Lambden. Mullingar Area Director of Services with the Council.