People Before Profit Galway has written to Minister for Transport Éamon Ryan, Minister of State in the Department of Transport, Hildegarde Nughton, and the National Transport Authority to demand that Knocknacarra’s bus service is reinstated.
Knocknacarra, the biggest suburb of Galway city, has been left without public transport since private operator City Direct suspended its 410, 411, 412, and 414 routes five months ago leaving approximately 20,000 people in the area without public transport. The routes also served Barna and Salthill.
People Before Profit Galway spokesperson Adrian Curran said: “City Direct suspended the routes presumably because it was not sufficiently profitable for them to run them with social distancing measures in place.
“This shows the problem of our public services being privatised. Public transport is an essential public service and running it solely with the intent to profit doesn’t work. It should be a state-run public service, not reliant on private operators. These routes should be re-nationalised and reinstated immediately.”
Mr Curran said that the limiting of public transport is likely to lead to an increase in traffic and a rise in emissions.
