Shoppers, mass-goers and AIT students will suffer if Bus Eireann dumps daily service

At 11.55am on a quiet Tuesday, a couple of people sat outside Golden Island shopping centre, waiting to catch the bus to Monksland. By the time the bus departed, just after noon, there were around 15 people on it. The bus to Willow Park left a couple of minutes later and a late surge brought the number of passengers to just under ten. Not huge numbers admittedly, but it was an off-peak time and during the traditional rush-hours morning and evening, these services including the one to Garrycastle, are packed. Often people have to stand. Bus Eireann wants to cut the town bus service as part of a series of nationwide cutbacks, making 11 local bus drivers redundant. The Westmeath Independent spoke to bus users to find out what they think of the proposed cuts. 'I"m disgusted, it"s a great service,' said Kathleen Reilly from Mitchell"s Terrace, who takes the bus nearly every day into town. 'A lot of people come into town from mass in the morning.' She added that a lot of elderly people use the bus from Monkland (that also serves Battery Heights) to attend 10.30am mass in St Peter and Paul"s on a Sunday. But her daily jaunts into town on messages will end if Bus Eireann do cut the services. 'You won"t see me walking and I don"t have a car,' said Kathleen. 'I won"t be coming into town.' Another frequent user of the service to Monksland is Larry Waston from St Colman"s Park. 'It"s always full in the morning, it"s packed with schoolkids and workers at 8.30am every morning,' he said Larry Watson. 'It"s terrible if they cut it.' He said that it was very handy that the service was provided on the hour every hour from 9am to 6pm and pointed out that a lot of elderly people who live in Monksland are dependent on the service. Linda Wheatley lives in the centre of town, however she"s attending Athlone IT in September and planned to take the bus to get to college. 'It"s not a good idea, not everybody has transport. I don"t know what I"ll do, the road is dangerous for bikes and I won"t be getting a taxi,' she said. 'A bus service is necessary for Athlone, so many people get the bus. I lived out beside AIT 15 years ago, when there was no service and it was badly needed then. Hopefully it won"t end.'