Waterford Council waiting on bus shelters from Sweden to arrive
A bus stop and makeshift seating area on the Tramore road. Photo: Robert Marchant
At a recent meeting of the Metropolitan District Council, Sinn Féin councillor Joeanne Bailey raised the issue of bus shelters.
She said: “Something isn’t sitting right with me from the last Plenary meeting. We found out that the contract is with the NTA and went out for national procurement. At the meeting we were told it would cost €30,000 per bus shelter. Can I request Mayor, that you write to the NTA and request an explanation as to why local authorities can’t purchase their own bus shelters?
“Did any companies from Waterford or the South-East put forward for the contract?
“I’m on the council four years now, and I think it was the first thing I asked for, was a bus shelter for Scoil Lorcan in St John’s Park, and now we are still waiting.”
Active Travel Senior Engineer Michael Murphy informed the council that the 11 bus shelters planned for Waterford have all been allocated to the Tramore ring road.
“There’s a lot of complaints in Tramore that we’re not putting in shelters; we are putting in shelters, we just haven’t got them yet. The NTA signed a new five-year contract on the first of April 2025. There still hasn’t been a single bus shelter arrive into Ireland to date.
“There’s 50 due in March and of those 50, I’ve booked 11. But they’re already late."
Mr Murphy told the councillors of his plight of trying to improve public transport in Waterford.
“Getting bus shelters is a major issue. We have to use the contractor that they’ve appointed because they’re funding it. We don’t have any choice.”
“Even if I could get bus shelters, which I can’t at the moment, I wouldn’t be putting them in rural areas," he said.
"We’ve a lot of bus stops in West Waterford with no infrastructure; there’s no pole, there’s no stop. There are bus stops there, but there’s nothing to tell you the bus stops there.
"We’re doing a minimum standard before we do anything else."
The minimum standard is a hard-standing area for people waiting for the bus, a socket for a pole, a pole, a timetable and a road marking.
“We have about ninety bus stops at the moment that don’t have that," said Mr Murphy.
"There’s a number of requirements of where you put bus shelters; you need room, there’s a minimum service required. There has to be a certain number of buses passing in each direction. There's also a regulation that they only put bus shelters in one direction - I believe the idea is you don't need one if you're on the way home. That’s not really valid in a lot of places, but that is the current procedure.
“It’s a very difficult thing getting bus shelters.”
