Anger over Bus Éireann decision to drop two Leitrim stops on Dublin route

Disappointment was expressed during the first Leitrim County Council meeting after the summer break over news announced by Bus Éireann just three weeks ago.

Bus Éireann recently confirmed that the villages of Dromod and Rooskey will no longer be serviced by the Route 23 service from Sligo to Dublin, as they were “low demand stops” and removing them from the service would “improve journey times.”

The change came into effect on Sunday, August 24, without any public consultation. 

Cllr Sean McGowan put forward a motion calling on Bus Éireann, the National Transport Authority (NTA), and the Minister for Transport to reverse their decision to discontinue the daily service serving the villages of Dromod and Rooskey.

He noted that the communities in both villages are angry about the news that the one daily service on the route each way was being withdrawn. 

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The only towns in Leitrim that the route now services are Annaduff and Carrick-on-Shannon.

Cllr McGowan highlighted that when the Dromod-Rooskey bypass opened, Bus Éireann had six services, which were withdrawn in 2009. 

Councillors met with the NTA and Bus Éireann on several occasions and managed to get them to change their minds, leaving the service at Dromod arriving at 7:30am and returning at 8:30pm.

Cllr McGowan urged that Bus Éireann provide a service arriving into Dromod at 9am and returning at 6pm. “What I’d be asking for is, that the service that we argued for retention at the time, was the service into Dromod at 9am and coming back into Dromod in the evening at 6pm,” Cllr McGowan said. 

“We tried to get three services at the time, and I’m asking that we try again.”

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“Dromod is a growing village, we’re not too far off 1,000 people,” he continued. “It’s no journey off the N4, you’re talking about 10 or 15 minutes and you’re back out on the route again.”

Cllr McGowan’s motion was unanimously supported, with Cllr Enda Stenson adding, “We have to meet them face to face, it’s just another withdrawal from rural, small communities.”