New junction lay-out puts buses in a jam
A North Galway bus company, which provides around 2,000 passenger journeys a day to and from Galway city, say that the new traffic lay-out at the notorious Briarhill junction in the city is adding around a half an hour to travel times each morning.
And now the owners of Burkes Buses in Claretuam are seeking an urgent meeting with Galway City Council in an effort to review the changes at the junction – they have expressed fears they will lose passengers as a result.
At the moment, the private bus company provide 10 services between Tuam and Galway every morning and use this junction to access the city centre, but they say that the new lay-out has been a disaster for them.
As motorists approach the Briarhill junction from the Parkmore side, they find that the number of right-hand turning lanes towards the city has now been reduced from two to one, resulting in serious backlogs in the morning.
Pat Burke of BurkesBus told the Connacht Tribune that it was causing havoc for their drivers and passengers who were now experiencing journey times of up to half an hour longer than was the case prior to provision of the new junction lay-out.
“For the past 10 or 12 days we have been receiving a lot of complaints and particularly from students at NUIG who now find that they are late for class. Our licence prevents us from changing our bus timetable to account for the increased journey times,” he explained.
Mr Burke confirmed that he is now seeking an urgent meeting with the roads section of Galway City Council in an effort to restore the two right hand turning lanes in the mornings at least.
“We provided a service that brought passengers from Tuam into the city centre in around 40 to 45 minutes each morning. The changes at this junction have added up to 30 minutes onto the journey,” Mr Burke added.
For the full story, see this week’s Connacht Tribune.