Local Link Kerry is putting the finishing touches to a long-awaited shuttle bus service which will be rolled out shortly in Killarney.
Kerry County Council’s Director of Roads, Frank Hartnett, told the recent Killarney Municipal District meeting that the service will be ready imminently.
Kerry Independent Alliance councillor John O’Donoghue asked the council for an update at the meeting, on the proposed shuttle bus service for Killarney.
He said Killarney will always have traffic as a premier tourist destination, but if there was public transport available most people would make use of it.
In response, the council advised that this service will involve three buses, operating seven days a week between 6am and 11pm.
The shuttle bus is a Smart Demand Responsive Service, meaning its flexible routing and scheduling reacts dynamically to requests from passengers, and will involve corner-to-corner collection and drop-off.
It will focus on inter-urban trip demand within the town.
The Smart DRT scheme is funded through the National Transport Authority, and the shuttle bus project in Killarney will be overseen by Kerry Local Link.
The council said Local Link has appointed an operator and routes are being reviewed throughout Killarney town over the next number of weeks.
Speaking at the meeting, the council’s Director of Roads Frank Hartnett said the service is imminent, and Local Link is just finalising the routes and doing trial runs.
Independent councillor Brendan Cronin asked if there would be bus lanes introduced so that these buses could move easier through the town, otherwise he said people would get out of their car into a bus, just to sit in the same queue of traffic.
The council replied that the installation of bus lanes is desirable when land is available, but traffic signal technology can also help movement of public transport vehicles even without bus lanes.
