Row leaves private bus operators fearing for future

Galway’s private bus market faces an uncertain future as an ongoing standoff over the rates paid to use Galway Coach Station appears no closer to being resolved.

Some bus operators have claimed increased rates for 2020 are punitive, and will put them out of business. They have warned they won’t return to the Coach Station until they get a level playing field and fairness.

The commercial operator of the facility at the Fairgreen, which is used by private buses for scheduled services and tours, said it had invested heavily in the station over the past four years to create a “world class” station. The Coach Station said the rates charged were agreed historically, were fair, and that without them, the station would not be financially viable.

Galway City Council, which leases the building to a private operator, has some oversight of the pricing structure, and agreed to the mandated rate for bus operators’ use of the station.

Its overall transport policy is that all private bus operators should operate from the Fairgreen, and not pick-up and drop-off on-street. But this has been undermined by confirmation that the National Transport Authority (NTA) granted a licence to one particular company to continue to operate tours from Merchants Road.

The Council said this was an “oversight” and would be corrected but it has complicated further the problems between the Coach Station and bus companies.

The crux of the problem dates back to 2008 when the facility opened, when all private coach operators were told that they would have to use the newly-built station. Up to then, the likes of Lally Tours, Healy Tours, O’Neachtain Tours, Galway Tour Company and others used Merchants Road in a rotation system.

The Council threatened companies that didn’t move to the Coach Station that their permission to depart and arrive would be withdrawn – that would have resulted in the NTA not issuing a licence to them.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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