Green Party candidate Niall Murphy has learned from the NTA that no current solution exists for getting a bus service on the Ballymoneen Road Upper before the ring road is built.
The bus service has not operated for many years due to the lack of a suitable place for a bus to turn around. The NTA now say that there is a potential turning point but there is 400m of very narrow road before
that point and the road is planned to be be widened as part of the ring road construction. So that turning point will have to wait for the ring road.
Murphy is disappointed: “While the ring road has planning permission, no-one knows for sure if or when construction might start. The idea thatBwe have to wait for an enormous project before we can turn a bus around is laughable. The narrowness of the road remains an issue, but it should be a fairly simple timetabling exercise to ensure that two buses are not on this part of the road at the same time.
“This ring road has given the council and NTA a convenient excuse for not providing any solution and they will now wait years for the road before even looking for a solution.
“If the council really believes the ring road is going ahead, then in the meantime we should pour concrete on a small patch of the land where the ring road is due to be located and let the bus turn there until the
ring road is built. If this is not practical, then some other solution must be found.
The Ballymoneen Road Upper bus is yet another example of a public transport fix which is being held hostage to the ring road.
“During the intervening years many living on Ballymoneen Road will be forced into car-dependency, or will continue to walk over 1km to get a bus. It is totally unacceptable that almost 4,000 people are left with
no bus service and no defined timeline for getting one.”
The text of the full response from the NTA is available at www.galwaygreens.ie/bus pdf
