Night-time rural buses introduced at cost of €500,000

A NIGHT-TIME rural bus service is to be introduced on a pilot basis in seven regions of the country within the next few weeks.

Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív yesterday announced a budget of €500,000 for the pilot scheme, which will last 12 months.

Mr Ó Cuív said the new scheme would be additional to the existing Rural Transport Programme, which provides daytime bus services in remote areas.

The initiative will be piloted in east and west Cork, Cavan, Sligo, Roscommon, Donegal and Laois.

Rural campaigners have been calling for such a service after publicans and their customers expressed concern about the negative impact new road safety legislation is having on pubs.

They claimed the social life of people in rural communities was being badly affected by a Garda crackdown on drink drivers following the introduction of random breath testing last summer.

However, Mr Ó Cuív had previously criticised the description of the proposed service as “a booze bus” as derisory and he replied:

“I strongly believe that there is a need in rural Ireland for an evening transport service to allow rural people to fully participate in the various activities — community, sporting and social — that take place in their areas,” said the Minister.

All passengers, excluding the holders of free passes, such as pensioners, will be charged for using the new service.

Mr Ó Cuív said many rural areas had no public transport services at night. Hackneys and taxis did not provide a guaranteed service because they operated at the discretion of their drivers, said the Minister.

The groups selected to run the pilot scheme were among 22 of 34 groups that currently provide services under the Rural Transport Programme and which applied to run the new, night-time service.

They were chosen on the basis of the need for night-time services in their areas, value for money and geographical spread.

The Irish Rural Link (IRL) — an organisation which campaigns for sustainable rural communities — said the announcement of the pilot schemes was “very welcome news”.

IRL chief executive, Seamus Boland said it was very important that lessons were learnt from the pilot projects so that sustainable models of delivering evening transport were identified.

He also called on the Government to ensure that funding for the scheme was expanded.

“It seems to be difficult for people in urban areas to understand how difficult it can be for people in rural areas to access evening social activities such as sports and young clubs or bingo as well as pubs,” said Mr Boland.

He claimed detractors of the scheme would be surprised in 12 months’ time by the cross-section of people who would use the service.

Irish Examiner