Public transport still not prioritised for Westmeath: Leonard

Published: Wed 29 Apr 2026, 2:00 PM

The answer to the current and future fuel crises for rural Ireland lies in three areas, says Cllr Denis Leonard.

They are: 1) better fuel supports for workers especially farmers, hauliers, drivers, and on home heating oil until the effects of this illegal war in Iran and other events abate;

2) better Public transport that will stop a complete reliance on the car and drastically cut transport emissions and consumer travel costs;

3) rollout of more sustainable forms or renewables off shore and onshore like solar (on buildings, car parks, and non-agricultural lands), biogas, biomass, anaerobic digestion, geothermal, hydro, off shore wind, wave and others not so heavily subsidised as wind) that will limit fossil fuel use to begin with. (Fossil energy powers a lot of electric vehicles as well.)

Cllr Leonard said that while efforts are being made to cut excise on fuel (but little on home heating oil) and in the area of developing renewables, little is happening in relation to the dearth of public transport options.

“I have written again to the NTA (who along with Irish Rail and Bus Éireann) have refused to meet us a council since late 2023 despite my own and the council’s repeated letters and requests,” he said.

“In the meantime, there has hardly been any major increase in the public transport provision we demanded.

“While the letter I received below is published here in full, you will see that while they are examining a Killucan to Kinnegad bus route (starting in Mullingar and on to Edenderry), they are refusing at the moment to deal with the delays on the Kinnegad to Mullingar morning service for workers, or reopen the valuable 20 service that took in Moate, Kilbeggan, Tyrrellspass, Rochfortbridge and Milltownpass to Kinnegad on a Galway Dublin Route.

“The NTA seem to have no immediate plans to reopen Killucan train station either (based on a flawed Irish Rail 2024 study with a narrow brief which prioritised a two-hour bus trip over a one-hour train journey).

“They are also giving no timetable on the vital Mullingar Athlone rail line, Mullingar Portadown rail line to the north and double tracking Maynooth Mullingar, which were all identified in the All-Island Rail Review.

“They didn’t even comment on the bus corridor they were supposed to install from Kilcock into Dublin to minimise bus times on the M4.

“This is not a sustainable public transport and if anything, the sizeable increase in population of Westmeath has not increased the public transport routes, in fact many have been discontinued. It’s time for action or continued fuel shortages will leave us in the Midlands and in particular rural areas more vulnerable than most.”

Dear Councillor,

I refer to your enquiry dated 13th of March 2026. Please see details below of our response to your specific queries.

Killucan to Kinnegad

There is a new Local Link service planned under the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Programme to link these two communities that will also serve Mullingar and Edenderry. The Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority (NTA) are currently in discussions in relation to funding of the PSO (Public Service Obligation) programme generally. The implementation date is subject to confirmation of funding so a precise date cannot be provided at this time.

Kinnegad to Mullingar

The early morning 115 service is scheduled to arrive in Mullingar at 08:22. A review of the punctuality of this trip in recent weeks did not indicate that this service runs significantly late but we would welcome further feedback if this trip has issues arriving into Mullingar before 9.

Galway to Dublin route

There are no plans to reintroduce the old route 20 Galway to Dublin service. Connections from Mullingar to Galway are available in Athlone.

School Transport

This is a matter for the Department of Education, the NTA has no role in school transport.

Killucan Station

As you are probably aware, there was significant engagement about Killucan station in 2025. The position remains that there are no plans to implement a train station in Killucan and the NTA plans to increase bus services in Killucan, including the Local Link service mentioned above and also route 115c which provides rail links at Kilcock. The current status of the PSO funding programme outlined above also applies to the 115c.

All-Island Rail Review

The rail developments mentioned (Mullingar Athlone, Mullingar Portadown and double tracking Maynooth Mullingar) were all identified in the All-Island Rail Review published in 2024. In December 2025, the Department of Transport in Ireland and the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland published a Rail Project Prioritisation Strategy that outlines how to best sequence and optimise the recommendations of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.

That prioritisation strategy is available at this link: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-transport/publications/rail-project-prioritisation-strategy/

At this time there is no update to share on the three identified projects in the All-Island Rail Review that serve Mullingar.

I trust that the above information is of assistance.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Kelly,

Communications and Public Affairs manager, National Transport Authority.