FREE public buses at weekends between now and Christmas could be the answer to bringing people and business back into the city centre.
So said Independent councillor Maria Donoghue at this month’s Metropolitan District meeting, calling on Limerick City and Council Council (LCCC) to write to the National Transport Authority (NTA) seeking funding support to provide free buses for all passengers on key routes into Limerick City at weekends.
Donoghue proposed a series of initiatives to bring people and business back into the city, starting with the free bus programme, each weekend between now and the end of the year.
Such a transport initiative, she told Council members, would both address traffic congestion, make the city centre more accessible as a shopping and socialising destination, and stop the decline of business activity.
Cllr Donoghue said that retailers in the city have told her of an ongoing reduction in footfall, adding that “I share their commercial fears that, with the closure of more retailers and restaurants in the city centre, the decline will accelerate and threaten more businesses”.
She added that her proposal would also “increase mobility of low-income and unemployed Limerick people, reduce isolation and exclusion, and eliminate the need for increased car parking”.
“Free buses at weekends on key routes into the city are a win-win,” she asserted.
“There is ongoing investment in public transport through the construction of bus corridors across the Metropolitan area and the introduction of zero-emission buses. I am asking that a small part of this investment is used to promote this experience.
Fine Gael councillor Peter Doyle seconded the motion. He told the Council executive that he is very conscious that many traders in the city are struggling.
Green Party councillor Sean Hartigan supported the sentiment of the motion but said that he wasn’t sure if free public transport is the “silver bullet”.
“It’s €1.35 for the bus, and I use it myself fairly often. The fact that prices have come down has led to some problems such as recruitment of bus drivers,” he claimed.
“We could have free buses in the morning but we’d still have a problem with traffic, so there might be a little more to it. I think the approach of targeting certain groups who need the bus the most, such as students, and reducing fares for them is the way to go.”
