BUS Eireann’s cost cutting measures that have necessitated a reduction in staff and services, is being questioned by Labour’s Cllr John Ryan, and Fianna Fail candidate, Brian Stokes, who have written to the Bus Eireann regional manager, calling for clarification of job and service cuts.
Meanwhile a spokesperson for Bus Eireann has confirmed to this newspaper that 27 buses will be cut from the Limerick fleet.
“We had grown our network but now we have to adjust it. Some 150 buses will be taken out of the network nationally, and the vast majority of these will go into the School Transport system. Overall, there will be a loss of 320 jobs.
“As for the local impact, we have not gone into this yet, as we first must enter discussion with the Trade Unions. We need agreement by the end of February and hopefully, can implement the changes by the first week in March,” he said.
Bus Eireann says that the economic downturn has resulted in less people using buses to go shopping.
“There’s also a big fall off in the number of non-nationals using bus transport, as well as less tourists. Last year we had a loss of nine million euro and estimate it will be 30million by the end of this year”.
Acknowledging that the transport company is under pressure to reduce operating costs, Mr Stokes said that nevertheless, he has called on the regional manager to protect the service to the University of Limerick and the Castletroy area.
“The recent improvement in buses and an increase of frequency in these services had provided much relief to workers and students commuting in the area, but any cuts now would put the incentive for more people to use public transport at risk,” he said.
Stressing the need to make public transport as attractive as possible in order to get people to leave their cars at home, especially when they live on a bus route, Mr Stokes welcomed as a positive step, the recent installation of a green route into the city centre.
“The bus service at present does not reach out to the whole community, protecting and improving should be the aim, and I am sure the company locally has the same intention”.
Voicing his disappointment that Bus Eireann proposes a freeze on recruitment and the deferral of national wage pay increases, Cllr Ryan said that beside the local city services, there is also concern regarding the intercity, provincial and rural routes that Limerick people avail of.
“The company has not indicated how many routes and services will be affected by these cutbacks and has ominously said that the change to fleet numbers will also lead to a reorganisation of our network. and cutbacks of this scale will impact on senior citizens and others without cars who rely on bus services. On behalf of my constituents, I will be in correspondence with Bus Eireann management and fight to retain jobs and services in the city”.
