Bus Éireann and City Direct must go to City Hall this month and outline their plans for furthering and improving their services for bus users across the city.
This is the view of Labour city councillor Billy Cameron, who has invited both companies to address councillors at the next Galway City Council meeting in City Hall.
During a discussion of the Transport and Infrastructure Quarterly Report at November’s council meeting, Cllr Cameron proposed that the two companies present any future plans they have in the pipeline to councillors and outline what progress, if any, has been made or implemented regarding the recommendations of the Galway Strategic Bus Study.
The study was published in February 2007 by Booz-Allen-Hamilton consultants. In the meantime certain recommended measures have been implemented, such as the signalising of junctions and the provision of bus corridors.
Others measures such as the Seamus Quirke Road/Bishop O’Donnell Road widening and the Urban Traffic Control Unit are in the process of being implemented.
However Cllr Cameron feels that “the major transport providers are lagging behind”.
“State of the art bus shelters lie idle at Gaol Road,” he said. “The Cathedral area was proposed in the report to become a second terminus for the city, serving several key destinations to the west of Eyre Square such as NUIG, and several schools in the area.”
According to Cllr Cameron, Bus Éireann had plans for restructuring and improving services based on moving from a cross-city network to a radial network with some orbital routes.
He said Bus Éireann also had plans to eliminate large loops from routes in order to provide a more simplified and more direct service.
“I hope that in their presentation this month they come to the table with plans to be implemented in the short term,” he said. “A key issue I will be raising with both companies is the urgency in providing direct services from the western suburbs to the business parks in the east of the city
