Social Democrats Cllr. Jennifer Whitmore today delivered a petition showing support for a local shuttle bus service to the National Transport Authority.
Whitmore said “Today I handed over a petition of nearly 3,300 names to the NTA in support of a local shuttle bus service that would connect our local villages and towns in Wicklow. The NTA are the agency responsible for funding Local Link shuttle bus services, and they recently received proposals for 3 routes in Wicklow, which were developed through public and stakeholder consultation.
The petition was set up by Whitmore to allow the residents of Wicklow to show how strong the support was for these routes.
As it stands there are no regular bus routes linking towns in the county together, with most regular routes transporting to Dublin.
Whitmore has called for a regular, high-quality bus transport service that will “enable our businesses to thrive and our communities to connect”.
The 3 initial routes put forward to the NTA for funding were:
- Wicklow Town to Glendalough (via Rathnew, Ashford & Roundwood);
- Greystones Dart to Roundwood (via Kilcoole & Newtownmountkennedy); and
- Loop of Greystones DART, Delgany, Blacklion & Charlesland.
Whitmore continued: “I believe these bus services would be game-changers for our local communities and town centres. I hope that this petition will convince the NTA that the demand is there for them and that they fund these important services. And if we are successful with these routes, there are other routes, such as for Arklow and surrounds, that we would like to see funded also.”
