Calls made for adequate bus shelters in North Longford

A North Longford councillor has called on Longford County Council Active Travel to provide adequate bus shelters for people using public transport to and from Granard.

Raising the motion at a recent meeting of Granard Municipal District, Councillor Turlough McGovern said it was “not right” that people were all too often “waiting for a bus in inclement weather conditions with no protection from the elements or a place to sit down.”

He told the meeting, “With the relief road that is operating here (in Granard) and it’s quite a good relief road, maybe the answer is to divert the bus up there and put an extra shelter there. We need to provide something. On wet mornings and afternoons, people use the bus going to Dublin and Cavan and it’s not fair to see them standing outside getting wet.”

Director of Services, Barbara Heslin, told the meeting that a response had been received from Active Travel in relation to the issue.

According to Active Travel, they are “already working with the National Transport Authority with regard to upgrading bus stops throughout the county.”

Ms Heslin explained, “It’s called the bus enhancement programme and they’re keen that we would have the appropriate shelters put up to encourage people to use the bus.”

Senior Executive Engineer, David Coppinger, added, “There was a consultation done around the end of 2024, early 2025, by Active Travel and they had already earmarked two bus locations in Granard on the Main Street.”

“Of course those bus shelters are not built yet so I have no idea where they are on the schedule but if you want to change them, we would need to talk to Active Travel.”

Cllr McGovern suggested asking Active Travel to engage with the MD at the next council meeting.

Cllr Colin Dalton supported the motion.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme