'Full review' of Athlone town bus service coming next year

Athlone-area councillors have said there's a need to add to existing local bus services in order to improve connections to rural communities and residential areas on the outskirts of the town.

At the October meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District, both Cllr Frankie Keena and Cllr John Dolan put forward motions seeking additions and improvements to the local bus services currently in operation.

Cllr Keena said there was a need for regular services to be implemented "linking all rural areas within a ten-kilometre radius of the town" into Athlone .

Cllr Dolan, meanwhile, asked that the providers of the Local Link rural bus transport service be invited to attend an upcoming meeting in order to "give us a presentation on the service, and how the District can help enhance the service".

In response to Cllr Keena's motion, local authority management said they had been told by the National Transport Authority (NTA) that it "intends to carry out a full review of the Athlone bus service" in 2025.

The Municipal District is due to make a submission to the NTA as part of this review process.

Cllr Keena said he had been getting a lot of representations from people living within 10km of Athlone about the need for local buses to the town, and he said this would also help to reduce the number of cars needing to drive into town.

"A 10km radius of Athlone brings it into Roscommon, and in fairness to the late Cllr John Naughten, he had been raising the need for this as well," said Cllr Keena.

Cllr Dolan praised the Local Link bus service but said there were ways in which it could be improved further. "I have to say it's a great service," he said.

"In my own local village of Ballinahown, there's eight buses a day stopping in the village, bringing people at a very reasonable cost into Athlone or elsewhere."

He pointed out that, in his case, he lives a mile from the village of Ballinahown and would need to get to the village in order to take the bus, whereas children who are going to school from rural areas get picked up by the school bus outside their home.

He wondered, therefore, if it would be possible to book a Local Link bus service online, put in an Eircode, and be picked up directly.

"You have to make a service user-friendly or it won't be used. It's as simple as that," he said.

Cllr Paul Hogan said he had taken the 819 local link bus, between Mullingar and Athlone, to get to Athlone on the day of the meeting and the bus was full.

"The 819 service is certainly popular with people attending TUS, and I feel that there could be an additional stop for those that work in the Garrycastle Business Park," he said.

He felt the council could do more to support the local bus services by ensuring that roads along their routes were gritted in winter, and by increasing the number of bus shelters, highlighting in particular the need for one at TUS in Athlone.

"When you drive by at off-peak times, and you see students standing there in the rain, it's off-putting for anybody that's going on the bus."

Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran agreed that the need for a bus shelter at TUS stood out. "It's a stop that's hugely popular in the mornings, and people are getting drowned wet there," he said.

'Boxer' also said there was a need for a daily return bus service between Athlone and Ballinasloe, to facilitate people who need to visit Portiuncula Hospital, following the closure of the Aircoach service on that route earlier this year.

The 819 local link service had been hugely successful since its introduction, Cllr Vinny McCormack said, adding that on recent weekday mornings a second 'overflow' bus had to be put on to cater for the large number of students using it to get to Athlone.

Ballymore village "has been brought to life again during the week because of the bus service," said Cllr Tom Farrell, who said it was being used by people to come into the village to have a few drinks and then get the bus home again.

Cllr Farrell added that he was looking to have a bus stop put in place at the Hill of Uisneach.

"It's one of our biggest tourism spots, but at the moment there's no bus stop there. Loughnavalley is the nearest stop, which is a mile away," he said.

It was agreed the providers of the Local Link service would be invited to come in to discuss the service at an upcoming meeting of the Municipal District.