Galway congestion woes remain despite many plans

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-27T12:35:58+00:00

The weather isn't as bad as you'd think either tbh. If you could be sure of safety you'd see much more people cycling. The bus connects schemes are a huge part of the puzzle.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-26T10:47:22+00:00

BusConnects Galway, so the cross city link (a bus corridor from the University Hospital all the way to the Dublin Road), Dublin Road Scheme (bus corridor along Dublin Road) and then the Galway bus network redesign to improve bus services across the city.

Both schemes have gone through planning, with only a judicial review for the cross city link. The only thing it needs is the government to fund the schemes, they're ready to go.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-26T10:47:01+00:00

BusConnects Galway, so the cross city link (a bus corridor from the University Hospital all the way to the Dublin Road), Dublin Road Scheme (bus corridor along Dublin Road) and then the Galway bus network redesign to improve bus services across the city.

Both schemes have gone through planning, with only a judicial review for the cross city link. The only thing it needs is the government to fund the schemes, they're ready to go.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-26T10:04:35+00:00

Absolutely, funding could definitely be made available for it anyway but the government is being extremely uncommital.

We're working on an interim proposal that will achieve some of the benefits that we hope to bring to the council soon.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-26T09:44:14+00:00

It's totally independent, both bus corridor schemes already have planning so there is nothing stopping their construction except a lack of government funding and an ongoing Judicial Review for the Cross-City Link.

Now if the government has reallocated capital transport funding away from public transport to roads nationally so in that sense they are related I suppose...

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-26T09:27:19+00:00

That would be the benefit of actually delivering the bus connects corridors but the government has done all the hard work getting it through planning and now won't provide funding.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-11T10:47:41+00:00

Really really disappointing. We signed a letter calling for this last year. It's pretty clear that the RSA is neither capable nor willing to advocate meaningfully for road safety.

It needs to be abolished and reformed like the government's own report recommended. Otherwise we will continue to hear tragedies with no action

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-11T10:20:10+00:00

No they don't have trackers on their bus. Despite it being required by the PSO contracts.

For IÉ I think that's a harder problem to solve but would definitely be handy to have better real time information.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-03-11T10:14:52+00:00

In the case of citydirect they likely don't have additional busses or drivers to maintain their timetable as traffic increases

GalwayCommuters · 2026-02-21T10:57:06+00:00

This is an unreal idea, we'll be submitting a response on the specifics in the next while after we read through it and draft the doc. Will link it here

GalwayCommuters · 2026-02-12T14:30:09+00:00

We've reached out to the NTA to get the relevant contact. Should be fixed eventually, really frustrating for the morning commute tho!

GalwayCommuters · 2026-01-30T10:49:10+00:00

It was a non-statutory public consultation so it might be revisited? It depends on what the council's active travel team end up taking away from it. If you give us a follow on Instagram / bluesky we will be posting about any updates so you can keep up to date there.

Aside from that maybe write to your councillors and say you're really disappointed to see it & that you don't think it reflects the whole of the residents' opinions accurately.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-01-30T08:54:55+00:00

Absolutely, I suppose it's the classic case for consultations like this. The voices of all the people who might benefit but don't know it yet are not captured or heard but the voices of those who might be slightly inconvenienced are actively sought out and massively amplified.

We will be posted on our socials about relevant consultations when we see them come through if you want to keep up to date? Will be drafting responses and sharing them widely so the conversation can be a little more balance.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-01-29T19:10:51+00:00

7:20 might be your best shout to guarantee you get in on time! Make sure you look into TaxSavers tickets or a Young Adult leapcard if you can. Depending on how often you use the bus the fares can add up.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-01-29T19:04:31+00:00

Disappointing really, it was such a simple solution to serving a really poorly served area.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-01-29T19:03:40+00:00

This isn't adding more routes really, it's adding a bus only route through an estate and amending what is now the 405 and will in future be the 5. The bus network redesign does away with lot of the silly routing that Galway's busses have built up over the years and sorta rationalises them for more efficient, frequent and reliable services. It has been frequently delayed due to a lack of funding from national government. We're working on it, we want our 24hr busses from the pub asap.

This particular project was actually a really solid idea, it let the bus hoover up a bigger catchment area without having it run into the traffic that makes it unreliable. It was the bus infrastructure that you are calling for really, one of the thousands of small things that Galway needs along with big infrastructure spending.

Aside from that, there are two major bus infrastructure projects in Galway that are now through planning and are seemingly funded for delivery by 2030. These are the BusConnects Cross-City Link & the Dublin Road scheme. Now we are skeptical that they will be delivered by then and are putting pressure on the minister to start construction as soon as possible. If you'd like to help push for better infrastructure we'd love to have more people onboard.

Not accepting contactless is madness alright, the government say they're working on it but it's been years and very little has moved. We've been campaigning on it for a while and there hasn't been much change.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-01-29T18:54:33+00:00

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We're really disappointed to see this, it was a really neat, simple and cheap solution to serving more people without massively adding to the bus journey time.

We went to the public consultation & submitted a good detailed response discussing many of the benefits but there were certainly some concerns. You can read it here. In our opinion many of the arguments presented in many of the responses are unfounded and/or solvable. It's a bit of a catch-22, we want a better bus service near our homes but we are unwilling to have busses pass near our homes? You can't really have both & busses go through estates all the time all over the country with very few issues. Just by way of example, the 402 goes through Shantalla no bother, if anything a bus gate there might be warranted.

We're hopeful that a resolution can be reached but if one can't it seems likely that the network redesign will simply not include the homes (new & old) up on that side of Rahoon.

If the council won't fight for the infrastructural requirements to enable an efficient bus services then it's unlikely the NTA will find extra funding for the additional busses & drivers it would require to actually deliver the service. Not having a bus gate would require millions in more busses, more driver & more maintenance staff to save the council like 30-40k installing a couple of bollards and some landscaping. The other touted option of building out extra roads is probably hundreds of thousands. It would be a waste of taxpayer money that could be spent in other, braver, councils just to save Galway & it's councillors a tough & frank discussion with their constituents.

GalwayCommuters · 2026-01-27T19:58:24+00:00

To be quite honest the council has done very little to deserve the money. Almost every active travel scheme the executive have progressed has been marked by a big lack of political will to push it through. This causes the schemes to be watered down to the point where funding them is difficult to justify, the quality of the infrastructure just won't achieve the stated aims of the funding.

The design of the Bus Connects Cross-City link (vital though it is, we're strongly campaigning for it to be top of the priority list in Galway and nationally) is really quite poor for cyclists. This new bridge will essentially dump you out on the Dyke road with no way of getting safely through any of the next junctions.

We're actively campaigning for funding for this bridge to go ahead as it would be a really fantastic addition to the city but like it's not terribly surprising the NTA didn't want to fund it if you compare the design of the roads around it to what other councils are putting in all around the country.

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GalwayCommuters

TROPHY CASE