More routes requested for town bus in Tipperary's largest town

John Nott, Senior Transport Planner at the National Transport Authority (NTA) has been invited to a meeting of Clonmel Borough District to discuss the town bus service.

The invitation was issued by District Mayor Michael Murphy at the monthly meeting of the Borough District.

Cllr Murphy said that the town bus was a great success overall. They could discuss the feedback they were getting with John Nott and explore the possibility of expanding the service to Clerihan and the Meadowlands area.

Cllr John FitzGerald raised the possibility of expanding the service to Clerihan, where there would be “huge usage” of the town bus. A lot of people lived in the Clerihan area and people were asking about it continually.

Cllr Pat English said that two thirds of the population of Clerihan worked in Clonmel and if they had access to the town bus it would remove a lot of traffic from what is a busy road. Clerihan was “crying out” for the town bus and they should be pressing on with extending the service there.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose, who represents the Clonmel district on the county’s Transport Committee, said that over 22,500 passengers availed of the bus service in September.

She said that when the figures were broken down month on month, almost 1,000 new passengers were using this service.
She understood that the Department of Transport’s priority was to get more towns up and running with the first phase of the service, and Ennis and Letterkenny are next in line.

Cllr Ambrose suggested that another Local Link bus service might cover Clerihan.

The service was hugely successful and they wanted to roll out other phases around the town.

In a separate statement, Cllr Ambrose described the number of people using the service as phenomenal.

“The fact that we have the figures to show that month on month we have seen roughly 1,000 additional users, that’s obviously going to help us as we engage with the Department with respect to adding additional routes onto the service,” she said.

“I am aware that since it started last December, the town bus has been a lifeline to so many people in terms of offering passengers the option of travelling into the town centre to either shop or visit friends during the day or in the evenings. I have been inundated with passengers telling me how great the service is and how helpful the bus drivers are to all of the passengers”.

Cllr Ambrose also reminded people that Leap cards, which offer reduced fares for passengers, are available from the Post Office.

“The future rollout of additional phases of the bus is vital from both a social and an economic perspective for passengers and local businesses.

“Given the almost 1,000 extra passengers being recorded month on month, I will continue to push for additional routes to be added to this service,” she stated.

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