Bus plans ‘at advanced stage’

The preparations for Mullingar town’s much-anticipated bus service are at “a very advanced stage” members of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad learned at their November meeting.

District engineer, Pat Kavanagh, made the announcement as he responded to a query from Cllr Hazel Smyth on the current status of the plan to provide bus shelters in Mullingar.

The written response from the district to Cllr Smyth’s query stated that bus shelters will be installed as part of the Mullingar Bus Service in consultation with the NTA (National Transport Authority). Cllr Smyth said she was aware an application for funding has been made by the Active Travel team, but she was keen to know when the public can expect to see the shelters in place.

Expanding on the written answer, Mr Kavanagh said staff from the district have met with the NTA on a number of occasions and have agreed all of the bus stops and the locations with them.

He said the NTA is due to come back to the district once they have engaged an operator for the bus service.

Cllr Smyth pressed for an indication of the timeline, to which the response was that it was outside the hands of the district: “We’re really at the beck and call of the NTA in relation to a timeline for that,” director of services Deirdre O’Reilly stated.

Rail query

At the same meeting, Cllr Smyth asked for an update on the Killucan train station feasibility study.

The written response to that stated that Iarnród Éireann has confirmed that consultants have been appointed and that the study is due to be completed in January 2024.