Work begins on new Castle Street bus stops

“This is good news,” district engineer Pat Kavanagh told the November meeting of the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District, as he confirmed that work is underway on a new bus stop in Castle Street for Mullingar’s long-awaited new bus service.

Mr Kavanagh said crews are also to install a bus stop at Austin Friars Street for the new service and revealed that the buses are currently being branded.

“The depot for the bus service has been located, and they’re actually working on it,” he said. “We expect the service to be up and running, possibly by the end of January or very early February.”

Cllr Aoife Davitt raised the query, quipping that the men on site had got a fright when she pulled up and asked them, what they were at.

Mr Kavanagh explained that the work is being carried out by the National Transport Authority (NTA), and that the council had asked the NTA to fast-track all town-centre bus stops before December.

“I told them they will not be allowed to work in the town centre from December,” he added.

However, Cllr Aoife Davitt expressed concern that the stop on Castle Street appears to be an on-street stop rather than a pull-in.

“I don’t think it was ever decided that there were going to be pull-ins,” she said. “We’re going to lose three parking spaces on Austin Friars Street and the same on Castle Street. I’m disappointed there was no communication with councillors before the work started.”

Responding, Mr Kavanagh said the intention for Castle Street had already been explained.

“If we allowed the bus to pull in, we would lose half a street of parking. We wouldn’t allow that,” he said. “So they have to park on the street and allow people to walk out to get onto the bus.”

He stated that some parking loss was unavoidable.

“The one on the opposite side will remain as is — it’s an indented-type space,” he said. “We’ve tried to minimise every possible loss of car parking spaces. What’s being lost is a small amount in the overall scheme of things.”

Mr Kavanagh added that the council and the NTA had examined the locations for the stops “literally space by space”.

“You just can’t physically put in 30 or 40 bus stops without losing some spaces somewhere,” he said. “But we’ve minimised it as best we can.”