Mullingar businessman proposes alternative bus routes

A Mullingar businessman has called on the council to consider alternative routes for its new bus service in the town, routes he and a friend drew up around 20 years ago.

Des Walsh and John Bawle drew up the two routes, which both start and end in Newtown Lawns but go in opposite directions, over two decades ago when they were considering starting a private bus service for the town.

The plans got to a fairly advanced stage but Mr Walsh says they decided to step away after another local businessperson started a similar service.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Mr Walsh says that while “not perfect”, his plans are superior to the proposed routes drawn by the National Transport Authority as the buses would travel along the streets in the centre of Mullingar.

“The ring roads around Mullingar make it possible for buses to cover the town in the shape of an eight with the centre of the eight in the town centre from the Dublin Bridge to Patrick Street.

“Some years ago I drafted a plan for a Mullingar town bus service using two buses starting at the same place [Newtown Lawns] but travelling in opposite directions. The routes cover the town centre and travel within 300 metres of all the schools, shopping centres, supermarkets.”

Mr Walsh’s main criticism of the council’s proposed routes is that none of them travel through the centre of the town.

“The proposed first route [Mu1] passes the doors of every shopping centre and supermarket in Mullingar but the smaller retail sole traders, the credit union, banks and main post office in the town centre are ignored.

“When Westmeath County Council did not fully succeed in killing Mullingar town centre with its recent traffic management, enhancement, traffic lights project, it had to come up with another way.

“The council’s proposed first route, by keeping people from the greatest populated areas out of Mullingar town centre, will help its plan to kill the town centre.”

Mr Walsh also noted that his proposed routes could easily be extended in the summer to take people to the diving boards at Lough Owel and Belvedere House and Gardens.

Opposition is mounting to two of the options put forward by the council for the Mu1 route between the Dublin Road and its terminus at the Lakepoint Retail Park.

The first option would put the new service through the Lakepoint and Gleann Petit estates, while the second would see it travel between Bellview Heights and Great Oaks. Both options would necessitate the removal of pedestrian links that would be replaced by “bus gates”.

Residents living in the estates have voiced safety concerns about buses passing through their areas every half an hour between 7am and 10pm.

Mr Walsh, who has family living in Gleann Petit, says the third option, which would travel along the Dublin Road, N52 and N4 before it terminates at Lakepoint Shopping centre, is the one that should be chosen if the council proceeds with the routes it has drawn up.

“Two of those ways would send the bus through narrow roads in housing estates where children play, ride bicycles and scooters and cross the roads to visit their friends, not to mention devaluing houses on the route.”

It is believed that the council’s preferred route for Mu1 is through Gleann Petit and Lakepoint as it serves the largest number of households, which gives most people the “least distance walk time to a bus stop”.

Mr Walsh says that this should not be a primary consideration.

“A bus service is not a door to door service like a taxi. If the intention of the town bus service is to get people to leave their cars at home in order to reduce the number of cars travelling into the town centre, then the buses must go through the town centre as often as possible.”

He also believes that second route, Mu2, is also ill-conceived. That proposed route is from Ballinderry Road to Lough Sheever Corporate Park, taking in Newbrook Road, Clonmore Road, Oliver Plunkett Street, Castle Street, Harbour Street and the Castlepollard Road.

Mr Walsh says that the route is “wasted” because of the “small number of residential areas it would serve and the chaos buses would cause travelling under the railway bridge close to the railway station and fire station”.

“The turn to go under the bridge is so tight that cars have a job staying inside the white line, but a longer vehicle like a bus would have to cross the white line and this would result in oncoming vehicles being delayed throughout the day, and could cause accidents.”

While he stressed that the routes he helped devise aren’t perfect, he believes they would serve the people of Mullingar a lot better than those proposed by the council.

“A lot more thought and work is needed on this proposed Mullingar town bus service before it becomes a sensible service,” he says.

Des Walsh’s proposed bus routes

Route A: Newtown Lawns to Millmount Road to Nugent’s Corner, then turn right and travel straight up the Dublin Road to the Mullingar Park Hotel. Turn left on to the N52, then left on to the Mullingar bypass, and left on to the Delvin Road at Lakepoint Shopping Centre. Down the Delvin Road to the Dublin Bridge and turn right, and straight up through the town to Grange Roundabout.

At Grange Roundabout, turn right to the C-Link, on to the Ashe Road and then turn right to the Fair Green. At the roundabout at the Green, turn left and travel towards the Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar. At the roundabout at the hospital, turn right on to the Castlepollard Road; at the Lough Sheever Roundabout turn right on to the Robinstown link road. At the Delvin Road, turn left to the roundabout at Lakepoint. Go around the roundabout and travel back to the Dublin Bridge, and turn right. Travel straight up the centre of the town again to the Grange Roundabout, but this time turn left and go through Clonmore Industrial Estate and Mullingar Business Park. Cross the Lynn Road and head past the Beehives to Millmount Road and turn right and back to Newtown Lawns.

Route B goes in the opposite direction to Route A.