Bus Éireann plans to reduce services across its network

BUS ÉIREANN is to close one of its services between Galway and Athlone and reduce services on 18 other routes across the State, as it attempts to stem last year’s losses of €30 million.

Announcing the latest stage of its recovery plan yesterday, which takes effect from March 28th, the company said services with low customer support were being cut on a phased basis.

However, the cuts have been described as shortsighted by Opposition parties which called for radical solutions to the problem.

Bus Éireann said it was making the changes to its city services in Cork as well as regional routes serving Sligo, Enniskillen and Cavan, and Sligo-Dublin. Services such the Cork-Clonmel-Kilkenny route are also affected, as are routes around Limerick, Tralee, Mullingar, Tullow, Drogheda and Athlone.

The company will completely withdraw the Galway-Athlone leg of its route 70 service, which operates once a day in each direction. A number of alternative services are available along the main road such as high-frequency route 20 Dublin-Athlone-Galway.

A full list of the affected services is available on the company’s website www.buseireann.ie

The company said some services often had five passengers or fewer on each departure.

“In many such cases, the fare revenue from these customers doesn’t even cover the fuel for the bus let alone the wages for the driver or the maintenance of the vehicle,” a spokesman said.

Further service changes would be announced, the company warned.

Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd, said it was “time to end the CIÉ monopoly and release its stranglehold on public transport”.

Mr O’Dowd said: “Fianna Fáil and the Greens are presiding over severe cutbacks in bus services in Dublin and across the country, but are refusing to let the private sector on to the pitch. The Greens must now explain why there are fewer bus services now than when they entered Government in 2007.”

Labour Party Seanad transport spokesman Dominic Hannigan said cuts in the bus service to Newgrange were a cause of dismay, given the need to facilitate visitors to the World Heritage Site.

Mr Hannigan, who proposed cutting fares to encourage usage, said money invested in this area could have returned a profit for the company.

Regional lobby group Irish Rural Link has called on Bus Éireann to return part of its subvention, claiming it had reneged on its €45 million public service obligation payment which was intended to subsidise the cost of running public services which were not commercially viable.