New enhanced Offaly bus routes added by Transport for Ireland

Transport for Ireland [TFI] has added enhanced bus services in Offaly to help provide better connectivity to and from rural areas.

From Monday, December 4, the 840 Local Link bus which links Banagher to Tullamore will increase its services as well as providing additional stops.

The existing 07:30am Banagher to Tullamore first service of the day has been advanced to 07:15 am. This is to provide a better link with morning trains from Clara and Tullamore railway stations.

There is now a new service that leaves Banagher at 08:30 am from Monday to Friday to provide additional relief for the busiest period of the day.

In Tullamore a new service will leave Tullamore Railway Station from 4pm to better deal with peak demand.

There will be three additional stops at Ballinamere National School, Ballinamere GAA pitch and Ballinamere Coolnahiley Cross.

The enhanced 840 service will run 6 daily return services from Monday to Friday.

In addition to the aforementioned stops, it serves Ballycumber, Pullough, Ferbane and Cloghan.

TFI currently has 47 weekly scheduled services with 200 plus trips a week in operation.

Thre are now services encompassing the construction training centre at Mount Lucas. The local link buses will provde tranport to the centre from Tullamore via Daingean, Rhode, Edenderry, Walsh Island and return.

Another service runs from Pollagh to Clara via Lemanaghan, Boher and Ballycumber. This will operate three times a day with the 6.30 a.m. morning service connecting with the service to Athlone Institute of Technology. This service returns twice a day back to Pollagh from Clara.

TFI Local Link Laois Offaly says it is its goal ''to enhance the connectivity in rural towns to give back the independence to our rural communities, by providing access to nearby towns for social, education and employment opportunities helping to break down the social exclusion and isolation experienced in our rural towns and villages.''