'Positive vibes' on new electric bus service for low carbon Laois town

An ambitious plan to provide a Low Carbon status Laois town with its own eco friendly bus service has reached another milestone along the road.

Portlaoise is getting its own dedicated town bus service, and it is hoped to make history by being the first Irish town with a electric bus service.

There are "positive vibes" coming from the National Transport Authority to get Portlaoise bus service up and running, a senior council official said this week.

Laois County Council has designed a route with 72 bus stops serving thousands of residents on almost every approach road into the rapidly growing town.

Their design, paid for by the National Transport Authority, has now been forwarded to the NTA for approval and funding.

Then it is on to tendering for a contractor to build all of the new busstops, and another tender to find a bus company to supply the service.

Director of Services for roads with Laois County Council is Simon Walton.

"In keeping with Portlaoise's Low Carbon Town status, Laois County Council is promoting electric buses to service the bus routes, from the date of commencement of the service," Mr Walton said.

He spoke in answer to two separate motions tabled to the December meeting of Portlaoise Muncipal District, by Cllrs Catherine Fitzgerald and Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley, the former seeking an update, the latter asking that the buses be electric.

"72 stops is really ambitious, and very badly needed. Traffic on every road is bumper to bumper and keeps getting heavier. Buses will take traffic off the road. It's a facility I can't wait to see and I hope the Abbeyleix Road will be added.

"It is essential for Portlaoise to grow, and for people to do business," Cllr Fitzgerald said.

Cllr Dwane Stanley queried if electric buses are guaranteed.

"I am delighted to see you are promoting E buses, but are we going to actually get them? I hope we will, as the pilot project Low Carbon town. It would be fantastic for the town. We have people living four and five km outside, in Bellingham, Clonrooske. It will encourage people to leave their cars at home, I only hope the fare is affordable, particularly for students," she said.

Mr Walton said that they cannot rule out using diesel or hybrid buses.

"This service will be funded and operated under contract to the NTA. We hope that early in the New Year, they'll give us a go-ahead to prepare tender package to deliver the bus stops. In parallel they will seek expressions of interest by operators. There would be a huge cost associated with this project, but it will be paid by the NTA.

"In fairness, all the vibes and feedback are very positive and we've advanced the project along," Mr Walton said.

He had no clarity on how much it will cost to get the bus.

"I don't know but I imagine it will be similar to provincial towns.

"I appreciate that we all want E buses, ideally as a Low Carbon town, but if we made that a precondition, I don't want to delay commencement, they could be diesel or hybrid. It's not an absolute but it's our preference. The difference here in Portlaoise is we are the Low Carbon town," Mr Walton said.

Cllr Noel Tuohy noted that there are already E buses running in Portlaoise, owned by a private operator.

"I hope extra consideration will be given to local people, not like the wall in the cemetery. I hope you don't punish people for being local," he said.

Mr Walton said that the tender would be advertised nationally on the Etenders website, to be "open to all qualifed parties to apply".

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J17 National Enterprise Park and the Abbeyleix Road are not on the bus routes, but Mr Walton said that as the town develops that could be reviewed.

Cllr Barry Walsh said it will be "a huge addition to Portlaoise", and will lead to business expansion.  Cllr Willie Aird said it will improve traffic flow through the town, with long queues now hitting many roads at rush hour.