Mullingar?s ?Red Route? ready by September

A pilot scheme which will see Mullingar serviced with one bus route initially will be ready to go by September this year, a meeting of the town`s area committee heard yesterday (Monday).

The proposal now hinges on the agreement of Bus Eireann for the use of their stops, final agreement from traders on Dominick Street if car parking spaces are to be taken away and on the readiness of Farrelly`s of Longford who it was announced have won the tender to supply the service.

Bus Eireann was roundly condemned by councillors present in the chamber for their failure to tender for the contract.

“It was decided after this that a private operator would be the best option to take the pilot scheme forward,” said Maurice Stenson from Westmeath County Council`s Community and Enterprise office.

The Red Route as it will be known will service areas between Greenpark in the west of the town and the area near Lidl on the east.

Yesterday, the council stressed that this route would be just the beginning of a wider network of bus services which would be set up on the condition that the pilot scheme is successful.

“But after the results of a survey conducted by Athlone IT at the end of last year we are approaching this with caution and expansion of the scheme will depend entirely on its initial success.”

The scheme will run for “no less than six months” and fares will be set at €2 single and €4 return. Family passes will also cost €4 per day and OAPs as expected will travel for free.

The Athlone IT survey referred to by Mr Stenson revealed the need for a bus service in the town and the case was strengthened by similar services which now operate Athlone, Navan, Sligo and Tralee.

The survey also projected that the population of Mullingar which has grown from 15,621 to 18,416 will grow by another 23 per cent by 2014. Westmeath County Council will initially subsidise the scheme by filling in the short fall between the running costs and the income from ticket revenue.

“For example if the running costs are €7,000 a month and the revenue is €4,000, then Westmeath County Council will offset the difference up to a maximum of 50 per cent,” said Mr Stenson.

“But this is only an example and we estimate that the company should have monthly revenue of €1,750, based on the projections of 56 passengers taking 1.6 trips per day. “At the end of a 12 month period we would be expecting the carrier to break even.”