Laois town establishes carpooling group following bus route cancellation

A Portarlington woman has set up a carpooling group on Facebook following the cancellation of the 816 bus service from Portarlington Square to Kildare Village.

Dublin Coach ceased the route as of November 30 due to 'declining passenger numbers'.

Portarlington mother Ms Jenny Murphy has established a public Facebook group on December 2, and has already received 70 members.

“Two of my adult children use the route, and my son's partner,” Ms Murphy explained.

“They all work in either the village or Kildare town. People are annoyed as the reason Dublin coach gave was declining passenger numbers,” she said.

“However, people were regularly left standing in Kildare due to the bus being full.“

Ms Murphy explained that the Portarlington community has been badly affected by the cancellation of this bus service, with the train being the only other means of transport for many.

“The only alternative is the train, and that is particularly far out for Offaly residents. People in the community relied heavily on this bus route for work and school. That's why I started to group to help people help each other with transport,” she said.

“There was a number of local children used the bus for school transport. The train station is quite a walk, particularly for people on the Offaly side of Portarlington,” Ms Murphy said.

“It is also quite a walk from the train station in Kildare to Kildare Village.”

Ms Murphy believes that the bus route should be reinstated, under a different service provider. 

She suggests that a route be established from Portarlington, serving Junction 14, Kildare Village and Naas. 

“This provider has quadrupled its price in a couple of years. The increases started when the government introduced reduced fares,” she said.

“It climbed from €2 to €8 one way which is very costly. This would be €4 for the young adult fare. 

“The bus was regularly a no-show, but despite that, any service was better than no service,” she stated.

“Dublin coach made this decision and gave customers one week of notice, it makes absolutely no sense to cease this just before Christmas,” Ms Murphy slammed.

“Portarlington has been neglected for long enough where transport is concerned. Many people particularly the elderly have free travel but it's useless without a proper structured service,” she said.

“We have a local link which really is not regular enough for shoppers or workers, it really only serves the hospitals in my opinion,” Ms Murphy said.

“Even the last train from Dublin to Portarlington is 22.10pm, it serves Kildare. This isn’t much good if you want to socialise, you’re either stuck in Portarlington or you’re paying taxis,” she said.

“To my knowledge, not one public representative has actively done anything to improve public transport in the town, or anything to prevent this service ceasing,” Ms Murphy finished.