Athlone bus service making €600,000 loss

Athlone Town's bus service was the heaviest loss-maker in the country and was over-resourced in the boom years, resulting in Bus Éireann making severe cuts to the service last year. That's according to Brian Connelly, Area Manager with Bus Eireann, who was invited to Monday night's meeting with Athlone Town Council along with Local Area Manager Damien Coen, to explain why the Willow Park and Garrycastle services were targeted as part of a national cost reduction plan. Giving ballpark figures because the information was commercially sensitive, Mr Connelly said that in 2009 the Athlone Town service made a loss of €600,000. "The plan called for a complete withdrawal of the Athlone town service," warned Mr Connelly. "If revenue continues to deteriorate we would have to take another look at it again." He explained that the Athlone service started out as one bus with one driver, however in the boom years it ended up "probably over-resourced". When examining the service, Bus Éireann found that on average the Willow Park service carried 5.7 passengers per trip and the Garrycastle service had three passengers per trip. The Willow Park service was reduced from every ten minutes to every 20 minutes, there has been no reduction in the Monksland service, while the Garrycastle one is cut completely. "In the past, the expressway revenue made up from that shortfall," explained Mr Connelly. "However we've been faced with unfair competition from multi-national companies cherrypicking our most profitable routes, sometimes without a licence. Profits have eroded and in some cases wiped out completely, especially on the Dublin to Galway route where there's competition from a multinational company." Cllr Paul Hogan (SF) wondered if Bus Eireann could reintroduce a basic service to Garrycastle especially for older people who have no other way of getting into town. "You are a state provider, you benefit from tax payers money... you should be providing that service," he added. Mr Connelly explained that the company received a subvention for the Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes from the government, however this amount falls short by €7 million. Cllr Jim Henson (Lab) said that if the company was running ineffectively in the boom times while also being state-aided, then cuts should be made at a higher level. "You have a duty of care to provide the Garrycastle service," he added. Cllr Aengus O'Rourke (FF) said the people of Athlone should expect and receive a service they require. "These routes might not be profitable but surely you also have routes that are very profitable and one would cancel out the other," he said. "Athlone has had a disproportionate amount of routes cut, up to 50% which is a startling figure. We cannot tolerate any further denudation of our bus services." Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran (FF) said that the way bus users and the local Bus Éireann staff were treated was unfair but thanked the men for attending the meeting. "In all of this cost exercise, no top heads are rolling, it's all the same in stage agencies," he added. Mr Connelly pointed out that an independent report by Deloitte found that Bus Éireann was generally an efficiently-run company and that the only way the company could save money was through cuts. "This is primarily about competition and Bus Éireann's inability to compete with the private sector," said Cllr Alan Shaw (FG). "Bus Éireann, as a market leader, should be able to compete. The idea of the private sector cherrypicking, well they are only there because there's money to be made. I don't buy the argument that the only way to cut costs is to cut services." Cllr Mark Cooney (FG) pointed out that Aer Lingus had the same problem with competitiveness when Ryanair came along. He asked could the company take legal action if private companies were working without a licence or could they ask the government to increase the fines. He also asked if there was any scope to look at the school bus service providing some sort of social service in town. Mr Connelly said there was a team looking at whether school buses could be used to provide rural services and also said Bus Éireann is to introduce a direct route from Athlone to Dublin Airport in the coming months.