Menlo and Circular Road must be included in the proposed revised bus routes, as part of the Bus Connects roll out for Galway city, according to Independent Galway City Central councillor, Mike Cubbard.
Cllr Cubbard made the proposal at the recent council meeting, where he asked council officials to instruct consultants ARUP to include Menlo and Circular Road in revised routes. The motion received a majority support from the other elected representatives.
The idea behind the cross city link is to "transform the city bus services", but Cllr Cubbard said no such transformation can occur if "two of the more highly populated areas" of the city are left without a service.
'In Circular Road there is no reason why the bus service already in place cannot continue up Circular Road'
"Residents of both areas have been failed in the past in terms of an adequate public bus service," he said. "In a time when we are encouraging people to leave the car at home it makes absolute sense to expand our city bus network to such areas."
Cllr Cubbard asked for an update on the progress of his proposal at the final meeting of the current council's Transport Strategy Policy Committee. He was advised that a costing on it would be done by way of a business case, with the results fed back to the overall plan. Cllr Cubbard is now calling for a six month trial service of the new routes to be implemented, "as a matter of urgency".
"In Circular Road there is no reason why the bus service already in place cannot continue up Circular Road," he said. "I believe we are obliged to provide a public service to residents citywide therefore I am calling on this trial period to be fast tracked in order to serve the residents of both areas."
