Calls to extend 818 bus service route
Councillors in the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District want improvements to the bus services network in north Westmeath – but aren’t fully in agreement on the form those improvements should take, it emerged at their April meeting.
The topic arose for discussion on foot of a proposal by Cllr David Jones that the Municipal District write to Transport for Ireland (TFI) and ask them to review and extend the 818 bus service.
Cllr Jones praised the service, which caters for Castlepollard and Collinstown passengers travelling between that area and Mullingar, but he suggested, that the route be extended through addition of an additional loop that would serve Drumcree, Archerstown, Glenidan and Fore.
“It’s only an extra maybe 10 minutes on the journey, and I feel it would be beneficial to all these rural communities,” he said, stating that those areas deserved to be served by public transport, and adding that the introduction of the service has benefited both Castlepollard and Collinstown.
Cllr Alfie Devine said adding the extra loop would make the journeys 20 minutes longer, and could affect usage numbers on the 818 service. He suggested that the district instead press for funding for a separate service that would serve Drumcree, Fore, Archerstown and Glenidan.
He pointed to the rural transport bus that runs from Finea once or twice a week as a potential model to emulate, adding that there was no need for an eight times a day bus to run through these additional towns and villages: “They need a filter bus,” he said.
Cllr Denis Leonard supported the call for an improvement in services: “What people don’t realise is if you live in Dublin, you can get a bus, a Luas, a taxi; you can get everything in every direction.”
He said that while there have been “some fantastic innovations” in rural areas, more services are required, and he believed, like Cllr Jones, that a meeting with the bus authorities is needed.
“We last met them two and a half years ago, and they haven’t afforded us a meeting since,” he said, also criticising the transport authorities for poor communication and poor responses to representations made.
“So my suggestion is that we continue to badger the NTA to get Irish Rail and Bus Éireann in here,” he said. “We need to have everyone in the room, and we have to outline on behalf of our constituents why these bus routes are needed in rural areas where people have no option but to get a car,” he stated,
Cllr Niall Gaffney said the most important thing with any route is that it’s reliable, and his prediction was that the response to the suggestion of extending the 818 route was that it would make the journey too long and that it was not going to be efficient. Therefore, he saw merit in pressing for a standalone service.
He also suggested that all the suggestions on transport and on travel routes that have been made by councillors should be re-sent “in a bundle” to the transport authorities to show that every area of the district is crying out for attention.
“I think it needs to be shown that we want a reliable, efficient, and standalone service… if it’s not reliable, if it’s not efficient, if you can’t bank on it, people aren’t going to take the risk of waiting for it,” he said.
Cllr Jones was reluctant to see his motion amended, stating that his idea in wording it as he had was that it was probably the option with the best chance of success. He said if members wanted to submit a separate motion calling for a standalone service, he would support that.
Cllr Devine stressed again, however, that extending the length of the journey by 20 minutes would disincentivise use – including his own use of the service. “Putting 20 minutes on it is going to be detrimental to the bus service. It’s actually a real success because of the route it’s actually taken,” he said.
Cllr Jones stressed that since all councillors were motivated by the desire to come up with a good outcome, he would agree that a meeting should be sought with the transport bodies TFI and the NTA to try and arrive at a solution.