The South Carlow Bus Service is on track to be up and running in a few months’ time.
The Bagenalstown Municipal District meeting last (Wednesday) evening heard how Local Link will operate the three times a day, seven days a week, return service will operate between New Ross and Carlow Town train station, stopping at villages and towns along the way as well as at the local SETU base and Carlow coach park.
Work to achieve this for many years and there are hopes to expand the offering in the future.
Cllr Willie Quinn has been telling KCLR News “It leaves New Ross at five past seven, the first one in the morning, and it’ll be in Carlow at the train station for 9 o’clock, it has about twenty pickups on the way which is brilliant, the people of South Carlow certainly won’t know themselves because even going to the college or going to the new university for the South East in Carlow that’ll be a major step forward and for everyone that wants to travel up to Carlow from the South of the county, the whole county up along the way from St Mullins, Tinnahinch, Borris and into Bagenalstown and up to Leighlinbridge and onto Carlow so it really covers everything”.
He says too it’ll help take cars off the road; “People up in Carlow might like to come down for a day trip maybe down to St Mullins or down to Tinnahinch or down to Borris for a day out and they’ll be able get up and down in the one day, they won’t have to bring their car, it’d be nice for groups of people, retired people or whatever that want to travel down for a day, down to the beautiful south county Carlow and it’ll be a great day out for them”.
And Cllr Quinn adds that tourism will also benefit; “It really is so important for the whole south of County Carlow, especially as a tourism destination as well as everything else with the daily routes, it’s going to happen three times per day, return trips, seven days a week which is absolutely massive, the seven days a week thing is really, really important so people will be able to leave their cars and get on the bus and travel wherever they want to go; Carlow is the link, the bus station and the train station in Carlow you can go anywhere as regards a destination when you get to Carlow”.
