North Wicklow Labour Representatives call on National Transport Authority not to extend contract for 45a, 184 and 185 bus services.
Labour representatives Cllr Anne Ferris, Bray East, Ian McGahon, Bray West and Anne Waithira Burke, Greystones have written to the National Transport Authority regarding the ongoing problems with regularly cancelled buses and to ask the Authority not to extend the Go Ahead Ireland contract to run the 45a, 184 and 185 bus services beyond the contract expiry date of 2023.
In a statement; Ferris, McGahon and Burke said “Go Aheads bus service in Bray, Enniskerry, Kilmacanogue, Greystones and Netwownmountkennedy is a complete and utter shambles. Every day we hear of stories of schoolchildren being late for school, workers abandoning these unreliable local buses to drive, elderly people waiting many hours for buses home and young people left stranded. Additionally Go Ahead frequently cancels the last bus at night time. It is clear that commuters in North Wicklow are being failed and have no faith at all in Go Ahead Ireland.
The contract between Go Ahead Ireland and the National Transport Authority to operate the three routes 45a, 184 and 185 and other routes is agreed until October 2023. In October 2022 the National Transport Authority has the option to extend this contract by 1 year so that Go Ahead Irelands contract to run 45a, 184 and 185 and other routes would run then until October 2024. We as Labour party public representatives feel this shambles cannot continue any longer. We have written to the CEO of the National Transport Authority urging them not to extend Go Ahead Irelands contract into 2024 for these shockingly poor bus services. Local people in Bray, Greystones, Enniskerry, Kilmacanogue deserve so much better” Concluded Ferris, McGahon and Burke.
