Local Link evening service extended for three months

A pilot scheme providing evening bus services operated through Local Link to address rural isolation have received an extension of time. Padraic Smyth, Manager of Cavan Monaghan Transport Co-Ordination Unit (CMTCU), said the continuation is welcome news: “We reported the usage on the extra schedule in January. They [The NTA] obviously had a look at those and thought it was worth seeing where they go in another three months.”

Minister for Transport, Tourism, and Sport, Shane Ross announced the three month extension to the pilot scheme providing evening and late night public transport in rural areas.

The Minister said: “Almost all of the evening services will continue to run until 31 March 2019. Tackling rural isolation and providing the means for people to meet, socialise and attend events is extremely important. I would encourage people to use their Local Links as much as possible so we can continue to provide, and hopefully increase, this very useful service.”

Last year the National Transport Authority examined the potential to extend existing Local Link services to provide additional services in the evenings. The initiative was focused on addressing social isolation and unmet transport needs in rural areas during evening/night-time hours.

Since last summer a total of 65 additional services across all 26 counties have been running on average from 6pm to 11pm typically on Friday and Saturday. Originally, it was intended that the pilot would end on 31 December 2018 after which the NTA would review it.

In its initial review the NTA found that the majority of the services are performing well, particularly as it took time for some of these new services to be developed. Also, it was felt that a six month pilot was a relatively short period within which to gauge passenger usage and trends.

The evening/night services commenced at the end of last June in Cavan and Monaghan. In Cavan the Ballyhaise to Liberty Insurance route operating via Cavan Town runs on Friday and Saturday evenings, while the Ballinagh to Cavan General Hospital route, which also operates via the town centre, are part of the pilot scheme.

There is also a flexible route running between Scotshouse and Redhills, operating on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, but that service must be pre-booked.

The CMTCU manager explained the decision: “This basically extends the scheme for a further six months. I presume it's just a way of allowing them to evaluate the service further,” Mr Smith said.

Public uptake of the service has been slow, but building: “I would like to say that it was fantastic, but that is not actually the case. But to put that in context we are not culturally set up to use public transport. If you live in Dublin using buses is a way of life, so when something changes it has an immediate impact. For something like this in rural Ireland it takes time for people to adjust, trust and change their ways of doing things,” the CMTCU manager told the Celt.

The CMTCU says that they will continue to grow the service: “Six months was never going to be time enough to make people aware of the service. We have promoted it, but it is still about getting the word out. In transport terms it takes two yeas to build a service. Whether we get that remains to be seen.”

The NTA will conduct a further review of the services in March 2019 after which a decision will be taken regarding future funding for these services.