‘Park and Ride’ plan for Galway schoolkids

A proposal to encourage children to use buses to get to school is to be examined further.

Galway City Councillor Frank Fahy (FG) has proposed that a more extensive network of school buses, possibly subsidised by the local authority, be set-up.

Cllr Fahy has suggested that car parks of city churches be used as ‘park and ride’ bases for schoolchildren.

When put into operation, he said, children would be picked up by buses at the church car parks on the city outskirts, and bussed into city schools. Children could walk to the car parks, or be driven, but either way the traffic would be kept out of the city centre, where there is a high concentration of schools and school-related traffic.

He said that a proper bus service for children could help to alleviate some of the traffic congestion clogging the city’s streets.

Director of Services Joe O’Neill said the proposal could be looked at in more detail – he said Bushypark church is already used as a base for a ‘park and stride’ initiate where children are dropped off for school at the church and then walk to class.

Cllr Fahy’s notice of motion read: “That Galway City Council, in conjunction with the relevant stakeholders, prepares a school transport policy/plan that would enable all secondary school pupils to get to school via a dedicated school transport system.”

Earlier, City Councillor Catherine Connolly (Ind) said there were 30 schools within a three-mile radius of the city centre yet there wasn’t an adequate school transport system. The lack of proper school buses forced parents such as her to drive their children to school, which was unnecessarily adding to congestion.

She said park and ride had been a specific objective in the Galway City Development Plan since 2005, yet it hasn’t been acted upon. Mr O’Neill said a permanent park and ride was trialled but it didn’t work – he committed to looking again at the possibility of P&R on the west side of the city. The school-transport discussion arose during a debate on the new N6 Galway City Transport Project.

Cllr Connolly’s motion, which was seconded by Cllr Mike Crowe (FF), to call on the executive to abandon plans for a new road through the city, was defeated by 10 votes to six.