The ending of one local bus service rings an “alarm bell” for one county councillor.
Michael Doyle told colleagues that the transport option between New Ross and Kilkenny is no longer running and this he says hits at tourism.
With the first stretch of the South East Greenway through Kilkenny set to open in the coming months, Cllr Doyle says it’s concerning that such connectivity would be disrupted telling KCLR News; “There’s a potential for a loss of tourism there to both Inistioge and Thomastown and to Kilkenny city like if there’s no way of getting from A to B off the greenway and you’re obviously close to Rosslare there as well and it’s going to be an extremely busy tourist spot, New Ross, in the future”.
He adds “Kilkenny Tourism maybe need to take a look and see is it feasible to extend that bus service down to get that linkage going and have it up and running by the time the greenway is open, you know, so I think it’s hugely important”.
And Cllr Doyle notes that with “All policies and all directions now are leading to less transport on roads so I mean if there’s a transport method that can take a large number of people from one place to another that should happen and I think the numbers are going to huge in New Ross once the greenway is open, there needs to be a bus service to give people the option”.
