Darragh's Soapbox: Public react to scrapped shuttle bus
A video on Waterford Council's Youtube channel, showing the electric shuttle bus crossing the bridge.
It was revealed last week that the planned electric shuttle bus that was part of the North Quay’s sustainable transport bridge development had been removed from the plans.
The courtesy bus was to provide a link from the north quays to the south quays via the new bridge.
The bus was originally to be funded by the Alhokair Group, a Saudi Arabian retail developer that was involved in the early stages of the North Quays and Michael Street retail developments. Resulting from a change in developer, the bus has been removed.
The news was revealed during a meeting of Waterford City and County Council last week, causing uproar amongst elected representatives in the council chamber.
The decision to scrap the project was labelled "outrageous, short-sighted, disingenuous and unacceptable" by various councillors.
We gauged the opinion of the Waterford public this week to see if they felt the same way.
said that the bus certainly would have been put to use during unagreeable weather.
"A bus there would have been great. People would have definitely used it if it was raining, or if someone wasn't fully mobile they would have used it. Also for people with disabilities coming off the train it would have been very handy, or just to bring people into the town from the train station."
also said they would have liked to have a bus operate on the bridge.
"100% we'd like a bus there and it shouldn't have been scrapped. Even if not the bus, just something there to use when it's raining."
added that they thought it should have been retained if it was managed properly.
"The problem is there might have been young people messing on it if it wasn't managed right. But it would have been handy for older people to use or people walking with shopping bags from the city centre when it's raining."
