Lack of transport for rural Leitrim’s night time economy

Councillors had their say on a lack of transport for the rural Leitrim's nighttime economy at a recent meeting of the local authority where they spoke to representatives from Local Link, Leitrim.
The members were informed that a pilot evening service on a Friday evening is due to start at the end of this month. It will go through Dromahair, Leckaun, Lurganboy and Manorhamilton.
Fiona O'Shea and John Carr from TFI Local Link Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim spoke to members about the service at the latest Leitrim County Council meeting.
Ms O'Shea said demand for the services door to door is high with 31 services in Leitrim operating five days a week and 17,600 passengers using the service from January to July.
She said the door to door service is vital as it allows free travel pass users to use the service straight from their homes and where there is a fare, it's extremely low.
It also allows individuals to avail of HSE day services for older people and people with intellectual disabilities and also do things like go shopping, attend courses and attend medical appointments.
In relation to the regular rural services (RRS) in County Leitrim, she noted that weekly patronage figures were “unbelievably high” for a county as small as Leitrim and said that 205,365 passengers travelled in Leitrim from March 2022 to March 2023.
Upgrades to the service that are coming on stream soon include the introduction of a Sunday service three times a day and four services a day instead of two from Monday to Saturday for the 572 Ballinamore to Sligo route.
The 566 Dowra to Sligo service will increase from one service a day Monday to Saturday to twice daily Monday to Sunday with services from Dromahair to Sligo set to increase to 14 a day.
While most of the councillors were very complimentary of the Rural Link service, they did flag a number of issues they were aware of in their areas.
Cllr Sean McGowan thanked Local Link for their “excellent work” and said they were a “boost to the whole county.”
He said that in order to tackle “rural isolation,” transport needs to be provided to those looking to socialise in their local town or village.
“If a bus was available on a Friday and Saturday night, it would be help to those villages and towns,” he said.
Cllr Felim Gurn said that Local Link provides “a great service in the daytime” but said the nighttime economy needs to be better catered for.
He said there are “black spots” when it comes to the nighttime economy and said many individuals have “stopped going out” due to this.
Referring to the Local Hackney Pilot, a grant aided pilot programme that aims to assist in the provision of part-time local hackney services in designated rural areas, he said there has been “no uptake” because of insurance costs and “having to be available on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”
He said more buses operating on Friday and Saturday evenings may be the difference between a business staying open and being forced to close.
Cllr Padraig Fallon supported Cllr Gurn's comments and welcomed the expansion of services but noted that people had made inquiries to him regarding timetables at all of the stops.
Regarding the NTA's Local Hackney Pilot, Cllr Fallon said people are being put off by the “limitations around the area of the distance you can travel” and said it needs to be “tripled or quadrupled.”
Ms O'Shea said the rationale behind the distance being so small is “if it was bigger you could be deemed to displacing existing taxi or hackney operators.”
Cllr Sean McDermott commended the work carried out by Rural Link however he asked if smaller buses could be used in some instances and also inquired about the Voluntary Car Scheme. Ms O'Shea said the big buses were needed to cope with capacity.
Cllr Des Guckian commended Ms O'Shea's presentation and also asked about the Voluntary Car Scheme.
Ms O'Shea said that the scheme involved people being taken to places such as Belfast, Dublin and Galway for hospital appointments, but “should have had funding from two or three different sources.”
Cllr Frank Dolan said the Rural Link service is a vital one for the community and also supported Cllr Gurn's comments saying “how important it can be to a business that a bus service is provided.”
He said there is no night time service in Manorhamilton as well as no taxi service.
“If someone from surrounding areas goes into the town, there's no way out.”
He said that he has seen people “out on the Sligo road thumbing” at night and feared “the consequences that could be there.”
Cllr Paddy O'Rourke said that in Carrigallen, the Local Link was “a life saver particularly when we had a large influx of Ukrainian refugees.”
He also asked if there were plans to extend the service there in Carrigallen with “significant interest among the native population too, in the use of your service.”
Cllr Enda McGloin commented in relation to infrastructure such as bus stops, bus shelters and timetables and said he would like to see the department provide more funding to Leitrim County Council to develop these areas.
He suggested that a night time service be piloted to “see if such a scheme would work because I believe it would.”
Cllr Gurn agreed that a pilot scheme needed to be rolled out saying he was regularly leaving people home as far as Kiltyclogher.
He said Rural Link have a “brilliant service” but a service from 8pm to 12pm was needed for more rural areas.
Cathaoirleach Cllr Justin Warnock said he had “nothing but the height of praise for the Local Link” saying it “transformed Kinlough from the day it started” but agreed that “something needs to be done about the night time economy.”
Ms O'Shea said the NTA are not against a night time economy budget.