Carlow’s town bus service needs to start as it means to go on.
That’s the message from the Carlow Kilkenny Green party Chair.
Yesterday it was revealed on KCLR that the new fleet due in action early next year may not be electric as was the original plan. Director of Services Padraig O’Gorman said it’s still the long-term goal but in the short term, the vehicles may have diesel engines.
Local Green representative Liam O’Brien says while he welcomes the introduction of a bus service he’d like to see it start as intended, telling KCLR News “It’s long overdue and it is obviously the right direction in terms of transport and how we move about from a sustainability point of view, look we all know we are in the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis and we have to take the right decisions in terms of sustainability so it is very, very important that the local authorities and government bodies, in general, take the lead when making decisions around the climate, biodiversity crisis, so I’d have to be disappointed if the bus service is going to be run on diesel and not electric as was originally planned”.
He adds whatever the intentions, the danger of starting with a diesel fleet is that it may never be changed to electric; “I know Carlow County Council are doing very, very good work in terms of climate and meeting targets as regards sustainable energy and so on but I think if you defer this decision the danger is that it will remain diesel and it won’t become electric as was planned so I think you have to put best foot forward in the first place and the best foot is an electric fleet and not a diesel fleet, if it’s diesel there’ll always be an excuse for keeping it diesel and never turning to electric”.
