22 September 2003: The future of the local bus service in Naas depends on talks this week between the operator of the service, Mr JJ Kavanagh, and Naas Town Council. The town bus service ended abruptly in July and this has inconvenienced a huge number of people in the town, especially the elderly who are now housebound.
Mr Kavanagh told last week’s meeting of Naas Town Council that he had written to the Council FIVE YEARS AGO but had not had a reply to his concerns.
Councillors were astonished to hear the claim and wanted to know who was responsible for not passing on his concerns to them.
Mr Kavanagh was welcomed by Mayor Pat O’Reilly (right) who hoped the local town bus service would ‘improve and be extended over the coming years’.
He asked Mr Kavanagh to outline his concerns ‘with no sermons’.
Mr Kavanagh said it was with great regret the service was withdrawn in July after almost five years. He said the company had invested E600,000 in the service and all vehicles were the most modern available and wheel chair accessible.
He blamed the fact there was no investment in infrastructure in the Naas area for much of his problems. He had written to both Naas Town Council and to Kildare County Council to no avail. He said the only town to give consideration to his concerns was Newbridge where bus stops were put in place. He had asked Naas to provide bus stops in 1998.
“No real progress has been made in planning required for those stop/shelters,” he said and this had led his company to incur serious losses on the Kill/Naas route.
“The company had an initial investment of E300,000 but backers are beginning to get nervous as progress is so slow,” he told councillors.
The Kill/Naas bus was averaging 250-300 people a day, mostly school children and OAPs. “A lot were availing of the service as it was high frequency and cost efficient. Unfortunately, with that level of take up we were incurring losses of E1,000 a week. The actual route was at break-even point for part of the time but was never profitable.”
Mr Kavanagh said they were finding it ‘increasingly difficult’ to meet time schedules due to increased traffic in Naas and speed ramps in estates also hindered their progress. “We have been operating in complete isolation to the needs and requirements of the Town Council,” he said.
“We started the Clane/Naas service in December 1998, and the average take up at the moment is 3,000 people per week. The congestion in Clane is making a significant contribution to time.
“There is no infrastructure in place in any part of the route we are operating on. There is no priority. The slow down on the Naas dual carriageway particularly at rush hour has made it impossible to adhere to our service.
“Based on the numbers we are carrying, for us to break even on the Kill/Naas route, it would need about 100 per day, or nine people per service which isn’t a lot of people. We just could not continue to sustain losses.”
Mr Kavanagh said Bus Media have planned 15 bus shelters to cover all routes he operated in and around Naas. The service uses the existing stop at the Post Office on either side of the road and the stop outside the church on the Sallins Road. He said 60 stops were needed for the three routes.
Cllr Charlie Byrne (left) said he had never been told by officials that there were any problems regarding bus stops for Mr Kavanagh’s service, or financial problems and he ‘did not hear of any of your meetings with officials of the Town Council’.
The Mayor told him to keep to the point as there were a lot of questions to be answered and asked, and they had agreed it would be Q & A only.
Cllr Byrne angrily retorted that the only way he could ask questions ‘is to go out in the hall’. He said Naas needs the service and asked if it could be restored as soon as possible as people were ‘desperate’ to have it back.
The bus operator said it would have to be a viable profitable venture as he was not entitled to any subvention. “There is no funding available to us. The amount of money we get for carrying OAPs is capped so we are carrying people at very low cost to the Dept of Social Community and Family Affairs.” He said it was a two-way process and he would have to have a commitment from the Council who had been against his obtaining a licence to operate his service in Naas. “I’m glad they see it was of a standard they wanted,” he quipped.
The Clane service, he added, is operating satisfactorily for the company and the Newbridge/Kilcullen service ‘has come on well and is improving and there is potential for it to grow’.
His greatest concern is the disruption that is going to happen when work starts on the upgrading of the Naas dual carriageway over the next three years. He said the road is bad enough as it is, and it is difficult for the service to keep to its time table, especially at peak traffic times. “It used to be 20 mins past the hour at Kill but that’s impossible to keep to, unless you prioritise bus transport,” Mr Kavanagh emphasised.
“The haemorrhaging has to stop as we can’t afford to be doing it.”
Cllr Willie Callaghan asked if a smaller sized bus would mean less running costs for the company and if the Council co-operated re organising signs and shelters would the service then return ... and if the Council encouraged people to take the bus rather than use their cars around town.
Cllr Pat McCarthy (left) said bus shelters is probably the only item under the Town Council’s control. He had had a motion passed calling for bus priority on the smaller road from Naas to Johnstown and from Johnstown to Kill when work starts on the Naas dual carriageway.
Cllr Timmy Conway (below left) also congratulated Mr Kavanagh on the service in Naas. He said the 3,000 people that travel from Naas to Clane and back ‘increases our business enormously’.
He also demanded to know who Mr Kavanagh had spoken to in the Town Council about the bus stops he needed. “It certainly was not us,” he told him. He wanted to know why the matter of the bus shelters was not dealt with immediately. “Who did you speak to?” he wanted to know. “I haven’t been informed about your problems and would like to know why we haven’t been informed of them.”
Mr Kavanagh also blamed the traffic congestion at Superquinn and The Crossings for making his bus service inoperable. “We were running 15-20 mins or longer behind schedule.”
Town engineer John McGowan then stepped in saying “We had previously discussed bus shelters and identified 12 places and were to look further into it.”
He said Bus Media contacted them about bus shelters which take up more space than bus stops. He had spoken with Kildare County Council and they could put up stops at locations which can be agreed. Shelters, he said, cost more and a third party becomes involved. “If we were to put the stops up on the Naas to Kill line, would that get over the problems of traffic and would the service then be restored?” he asked. He added they can ‘order those stops and have them up within weeks’.
Mayor Pat O’Reilly said the shelters ‘are a bit expensive’. He wanted to know who was going to foot the bill.
Cllr Seamie Moore (left) wanted it put on record that the Council ‘owed’ Mr Kavanagh as he had helped ferry people around the town at his own expense for the Summer Festival. He asked would the advertising revenue at the shelters be worthwhile to be able to subsidise the poor service?’ “You would need about 800 a day on the Naas/Kilcullen route and how would the bus shelters encourage the extra numbers to make the service economical. Will it be sufficient for you?” he asked.
Town clerk Declan Kirrane (right) said there is a certain ‘irony’ to it all as when the bus licence was granted to Mr Kavanagh to operate the town service, ‘the members expressed their dissatisfaction’.
“There was no consultation before the licence was issued by the Government and maybe if there was, these problems would not have surfaced,” he said.
He asked “Who does he wish to pay for the bus service and is it not true that the bus service became identifiable as for school children and also there was a reluctance for the ordinary people to use the bus?”
Mr Kavanagh said Bus Media had offered to provide the bus shelters at no cost to Naas Town Council and the advertising revenue would accrue to them. He said if they were put in place the licence would be renewed on an annual basis but they were told recently it would take longer as planning permission was needed.
He said Mr Kirrane had contacted him after the matter was raised at a meeting five years ago and ‘that was the first time I formally wrote to Naas Town Council .... but I never got a response!”
“They had consultations with some engineer and I again raised the problem of bus stops. I got no response. I was recently contacted by Des O’Connor of Naas Town Council saying he had ordered the bus stops and they should be in place in two weeks .... but they are still not available.”
John McGowan said the road is under the remit of Kildare Council and also Naas Town Council and bus shelters can be in place ‘in weeks’.
Mr Kavanagh replied that Des O’Connor ‘did not mention the Kill/Naas route’.
The Mayor then suggested that a meeting take place between Mr Kavanagh, Des O’Connor and the Town Council and town engineer ‘to move forward’.
Cllr Byrne again raised the matter of Mr Kavanagh ‘waiting five years to get answers to a letter ... and he never gets it!’
Cllr Conway then asked Mr Kavanagh to outline to councillors his exact requirements telling him ‘it’s important that WE are in that loop and have a copy of what you submit to the officials’. “We want it to happen. The town and the people want it.”
The Mayor demanded: “If those shelters are erected will you reintroduce the service.”
Cllr Anthony Egan (left) told Mr Kavanagh “You can look to the bus stops as a launch pad for your shelters.”
Cllr Callaghan said planning permission WILL come from Naas Town Council and he wanted to see a progress report ‘each month until it is resolved’.
Mr Kavanagh said the double decker was removed from the Kill/Naas route in 1999 and a 44-seater single decker now operates that route. He said the reduction in cost would be ‘negligible running a smaller bus’. He said to reintroduce the service as a matter of urgency, and he was to recommence suffering losses, it would be of little benefit to him.
“We need cooperation fully both in terms of infrastructure improvements and financial provision ... and there is financial contribution made to that service by the Town Council who have put in the bus stops and all the infrastructure necessary for the service.”
“We will never get rich from it but we are not losing from it because of the assistance from the Council. All the sites have been marked out between Bus Media and Naas Town Council and Kildare County Council as the most appropriate for the erection of bus stops.
The Mayor said there ‘appears to be misunderstandings’ and that it was important to have them ironed out. He said the meeting should take place ‘next week or within ten days’. “Each member here has expressed their concern about the situation and we want to see the buses back.”
Mr Kavanagh said it wasn’t a decision made lightly to withdraw the service. While the bus shelters was one issue, it was also one of money. “The numbers we were carrying between 250-300 per day and another 100 per day or 600 per week or nine people per hour was enough to break even.”
The Mayor asked: “What kind of subsidy are we talking about?”
Mr Kavangh replied “If we are losing a thousand a week it doesn’t take much to work out what we are losing. If we can guarantee quality service on time, all the time, and people are encouraged to use it, and it is relaunched and promoted in a positive way, then that nine extra people per hour might be achievable so there might be no subvention necessary.”
