Sean Abeyta from GLAS Civil Engineering with Mayor of Ennis Cllr Mary Howard and Senior Engineer Ennis Municipal District Hugh McGrath at the site of one of the new bus stops currently being installed across Ennis. Photograph: Eamon Ward.
ENNIS’ new town bus service has been delayed yet again but a finish line is in sight.
Talk of a town bus service for Ennis was first raised at local government level in 2004 and most recent timeframes were for it to be operational at the beginning of 2025, this was pushed back to the summer of 2026 and now the launch of the town bus is autumn of this year at the earliest.
Works began this week on the installation of bus stop infrastructure for the town bus service. Impacted roads include from the Tulla Road to the Shanaway Road via the town centre, and from the Gort Road to the Clare Road and Clarecastle via the town centre.
A spokesperson for Clare County Council stated, “As works will be mostly carried out at kerbside, significant impacts on traffic flow are not anticipated”. The spokesperson added, “Operation of the new bus service is expected to commence on completion of these works in the autumn”.
Progress with the service has occurred at “a snail’s pace”, political sources have remarked to The Clare Echo. It had been included as a key target in the controversial Ennis 2040 plan.
In 2017, former councillor Johnny Flynn then of Fine Gael received unanimous backing from his colleagues in the Ennis Municipal District which asked “to urgently seek the National Transport Agency (NTA) to plan to provide for the first time a bus service in Ennis as the NTA are currently in the process of doing similarly for rural towns of Carlow, Mullingar and Letterkenny”.
Brian McCarthy who was the Council’s senior planner at the time said in response, “Clare County Council is interested in working with a local group proposing such a project together with state supported agencies, in order to achieve the objectives as set out in the Clare County development plan 2017-2023 and the rural development strategy”.
From early 2022 to June 2023, the NTA and the Ennis MD worked on finalising the preferred routes for the bus service and developed detailed stop and terminus designs. The preferred routes will traverse Ennis from the Lahinch Road to the Tulla Road and from Clarecastle to Ballymaley via a town centre terminus at Friar’s Walk, with scope for the development of an additional route from Doora Industrial Estate to and from the town centre.
When operational, the service will run seven days a week for eighteen hours daily, the NTA have said previously. The NTA have said that seven out of ten Ennis residents will be situated within 400m of a bus stop with nine out of ten residents being within 800m of a bus stop.
Speaking this week, Mayor of the Ennis MD, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) described the installation of the bus stop infrastructure as “a significant milestone for Ennis and for Clare”.
She stated, “The introduction of a new frequent Ennis Town Bus Service, every 30 minutes, aligns with a number of objectives set out in the Clare County Development Plan, including supporting sustainable modes of travel, reducing reliance on cars, supporting the night-time economy through improved evening and late-night accessibility and strengthening linkages to rural transport through hub-and-spoke services”.
Senior engineer with the Ennis MD, Hugh McGrath commented, “These enabling works will provide safe, accessible bus stop infrastructure and improved waiting areas along the new routes. Works will be managed to minimise disruption, and we thank residents, businesses and road users for their cooperation while the project is delivered”.
