New Barna to Parkmore bus service on hold due to rising costs

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Plans to roll out bus services from the western side of the city to Parkmore and Ballybrit have been put on hold – due to soaring fuel costs, staff shortages and the subsidies provided to public buses which make the private routes uneconomical.

Licenses have been granted to the Galway Tour Company to start the two routes beginning in Barna and travelling across the most densely populated parts of Knocknacarra and dropping them off at the biggest employers on the east of the city.

They had been due to start in January, with 12 buses a day earmarked for the Parkmore route and 10 servicing Ballybrit.

Galway Tour Company Managing Director Ray Murray said he has eight buses parked in his yard ready to go and had purchased four more to begin the new service.

But that launch has been shelved for now.

Meanwhile, An Bord Pleanála has already queried the extent of on-street parking being retained as part of the planned Galway Cross-City bus route – before planning application is even lodged.

Galway City Council has yet to submit its application for the BusConnects Cross-City Link after holding talks with An Bord Pleanála to clarify certain issues before formally lodging it.

The local authority had indicated its intention to submit a planning application by the end of May.

During one of two pre-application meetings, members of the Board noted that “a considerable amount of on-street parking was being retained and queried whether this would conflict with the objectives of the project, including reliability of bus services”.

Separately, the National Transport Authority will consider a nighttime bus service as part of a review of bus services in Galway – branded the city “with the greatest transport problems” by the Minister for Transport.

Hugh Creegan, Deputy Chief Executive of the National Transport Authority (NTA), has confirmed that separate reviews will be carried out this year on the Galway bus network and also the Galway Transport Strategy.

This is a shortened preview version of a two-page focus on bus services in Galway City. To read the rest of the articles, see the July 1 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.