A Kilkenny bus company owner is so frustrated by the local council that he has called for support and assistance from anyone who can help including politicians, community activists, the media, and other interested parties.
Denis Buggy said that he had to take action following months of complaints from elderly people, people with special needs, and other passengers on his buses about the treatment of the bus users by the council, who have said that buses cannot stop on Patrick Street in the city centre anymore.
“We moved the buses off the Parade where we have been operating out of for over 80 years, while the Parade was being refurbished and we were told that there would be two bus stops returned to the area once the project was completed, but since then we haven’t been provided with a workable solution.”
However, senior engineer Kieran Fitzgerald disputes Mr Buggy’s suggestion that the council has been less than co-operative with bus companies.
“We have so many more bus stops across the city than ever before since the refurbishment of the Parade. We had to take the buses off the Parade as there is not the width there to accommodate them. Now there are stops on Ormonde Road, Dean St, MacDonagh Junction, the Dublin Road, Bateman Quay and others. The one place we ask buses not to stop is on Patrick St. There is no room there and it causes traffic chaos at busy times of the day. We have only moved the stops a hundred metres or so which we don’t think is unreasonable,” said Mr Fitzgerald.
Meanwhile, Mr Buggy is also angry at what he believes is a deliberate attempt by the council to prevent buses from taking a right hand turn onto Rose Inn Street from the Parade.
“Road markings have been put in place and a large steel pole erected on the street that the buses will hit, if they turn right.,” he said.
“It beggars belief that the council has actually erected a pole that will damage a bus if we go to turn right! I can’t understand the logic. There is no way that we can go right and we can’t go down High Street so the only way to go to Castlecomer is to go in the opposite direction up Patrick St and go miles out of passenger’s way. It is simply outrageous what the council expects us to do.”
Mr Fitzgerald rejects this statement. “Of course we haven’t erected a pole to damage buses. There is ample room for buses to turn right if they wish and even the road markings are set back in order to accommodate buses in this regard,” he said.
Mr Buggy is also concerned that if he stops collecting at Patrick Street his passengers who include a lot of elderly people and people with disabilities, will not know where to go and will find the new stop very far away and unduly difficult to reach.
“I have many passengers who are not able-bodied. They are older or have special needs. These people don’t understand that they can’t get on a bus where they have always got on it before. In any case the new stop where they are now supposed to wait isn’t even on their bus route and so it makes no sense,” said Mr Buggy.
...continued on page 4.
