A pilot bus scheme crossing the county border from Kilkenny into Carlow is being hailed as a blueprint for addressing the lack of rural transport connectivity throughout the country.
The Barrow Bus came into being this summer when Kilkenny Leader Partnership launched a new route serving six communities along the River Barrow and linking them to national transport links in Kilkenny city.
Serving Bagenalstown, Paulstown, Goresbridge, Skeoughvosteen, and Graiguenamanagh in Co Kilkenny and St Mullins in Co Carlow, the Barrow Bus has been a huge hit with passengers of all ages who have availed of the Monday to Saturday service, with four departures each day.
Declan Rice, chief executive of Kilkenny LEADER Partnership says the success of the project proves the need for integrated, flexible rural transport options throughout the country.
“This is the second pilot scheme we’ve run in the past two years, with the Lingaun Loop service attracting more than 1,000 passenger journeys last summer, which covered the Lingaun Valley, taking in Kilkenny, Waterford and Tipperary,” he explains.
“Because the Barrow Bus is an Action Research Project, it can’t be extended but when the service ends, the Barrow Way and Lingaun Loop communities will be able to share a bus, donated by Kilkenny LEADER Partnership. It won’t replicate either service in their entirety but it will give better options for rural transport than previously existed.”
Unique challenges
Declan says the Barrow Bus, which cost in the region of €90,000, serves to reinforce the need for fresh thinking when it comes to providing greater mobility for communities in rural areas.
“We have a unique set of challenges in rural Ireland when it comes to addressing rural transport as we have a very large road network and scattered populations,” he says.
“We’ve been working with the European Rural Mobility Network and examining other countries to see how they’re dealing with rural transport.
“We need to take a different approach than we have been doing, where integrating services that are flexible have to be the baseline. I use the analogy of broadband when I think of how we can tackle this issue.
“For the past 20 years we’ve been seeking high speed broadband, and for a long time, services were offered without any minimum standard. As soon as the standards were issued by the European Union, services improved and we’re now at a stage where most of the country has broadband coverage.
The hope now is that funding will be secured to make the Barrow Bus a year-round service. People are just getting used to it and the timetable it offers so to finish it now, as is expected in October, would be a setback
“I think the same will work for rural transport. Once standards are issued, the services will follow.
Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere, Kilkenny TD and Fianna Fáil spokesperson for rural affairs says the Barrow Bus service has been a ‘revelation’ for the communities it serves.
“This is one of the most successful initiatives in this region for the value it has brought to people of all ages,” he says.
“The connectivity it has brought for people throughout the county, in a region that was previously not served by public transport – in Skeoughvosteen where I’m from, there has never been a bus service – has been incredible.
“This is a completely free service and it has been utilised by all age groups, from teenagers who used it to meet up with friends and go training and to matches, to older members of the community who have been able to avail of the bus to go collect their pension or do their shopping. I know of one lady who has been able to visit the graveyard where her parents are buried on a more regular basis because of the Barrow Bus, and these small things are making a huge difference.”
Permanent service
Deputy Cleere says that the success of the service, which is due to finish in early October, has made a very strong case for it to become a permanent part of life in the county.
“I have made representations to my party colleague Minister Darragh O’Brien and we’ve had a positive response from Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
“I have first-hand experience of how valuable this bus is. I have four daughters and the two eldest, who are teenagers, were regular users of the bus over the summer when they met up with friends in Graiguenamanagh or went to the heated outdoor pool in Bagenalstown. I’ve even used it myself coming down from the Dáil as it picks up at the train station in Bagenalstown and drops me within 500m of my front door.
“What has been achieved here in Kilkenny with the Barrow Bus can and should be replicated around the country. People know their communities and can identify the routes most needed for a service like this, the model is there which could be introduced on a county-by-county basis if the vision was there.”
While rural transport services have improved significantly in recent years through the introduction of increased Local Link services, Deputy Cleere believes there are still communities that are in dire need of adequate public transport options.
This is a completely free service and it has been utilised by all age groups, from teenagers who used it to meet up with friends and go training and to matches, to older members of the community who have been able to avail of the bus to go collect their pension or do their shopping
“Local Link services do a phenomenal job throughout the county but there was none servicing this particular route and the difference regular, reliable transport has made to the lives of so many cannot be underestimated,” he adds.
“Also, Local Link services tend to be confined within county boundaries, whereas the Barrow Bus crosses the county border into Carlow, bringing with it a wave of activity into St Mullins, which is a small village but has so much to offer. We even have tourists who visit the Barrow Valley Activities Hub in Graiguenamanagh using this bus service to travel around the county, so the economic value of this service to the region is as significant as the social boost it is giving the local people.”
Compelling case
Martin O’Brien, volunteer chairperson of the Barrow Valley Activity Hub says the new service has been a ‘huge asset’ to the communities along its route.
“The service has had thousands of users since it launched in the summer and now the hope is that it will be made permanent as that continuity is essential if it’s to continue attracting such support,” he explains.
“The nearest train station to us here in Graiguenamanagh is Bagnelstown so the Barrow Bus is a great connection for that and it’s being used by everyone in the community, in areas that previously had no public transport links to other services in the county.
“The success of it has actually prompted us to invest in our own bus for the Hub, which attracts visitors all year round, and we have partnered with hotels in Kilkenny city to bring visitors out into the region.
“The hope now is that funding will be secured to make the Barrow Bus a year-round service. People are just getting used to it and the timetable it offers so to finish it now, as is expected in October, would be a setback.
“I believe passengers would happily pay a fare for this service now they’ve seen how beneficial it is to people of all ages.”
Declan says in order for the Barrow Bus to become a permanent fixture, the National Transport Authority would need to issue a licence for the service, which would then go out to tender.
“We are not in a position to champion the Barrow Bus as a full-time public transport service, as we will introduce another service next year in a different part of the county,” he adds.
“But with the data we have gathered over the four months of the service, along with the strong support from people of all ages living across the six communities and beyond, there is an argument that it would be viable, if someone was to make a compelling case to that effect.”
SHARING OPTIONS