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Irish Examiner
29-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Killarney to get new shuttle buses to ease traffic gridlock
Killarney is to get a new shuttle bus service in a bid to ease chronic gridlock in the popular tourist town. The shuttle service — three buses operating seven days a week — will become operational 'imminently", according to Kerry County Council director of roads services Frank Hartnett. The buses will start at 6am and continue to pick up and drop off passengers until 11pm, running to the most popular locations in the area. The service is part of a new transport programme for Killarney and is being funded by the National Transport Authority. A management structure, overseen by the Local Link Service, is already in place. 'They are finalising routes and travel plans. It is imminent,' Mr Hartnett said. A meeting of Kerry County Council's Killarney Municipal District heard that traffic in the town is worsening, particularly during peak commuter hours. Local councillor Marie Moloney appealed for the shuttle service to be made available to school students while her fellow councillor Brendan Cronin bemoaned the introduction of cycle lanes, which he said left little space for dedicated bus lanes. Mr Cronin said: Every bit of space we have is constantly going to cycle lanes. The opportunity is gone for dedicated bus lanes. Locations for park-and-ride services are being identified so people can leave cars on the outskirts of the town to ease congestion on the main arteries into Killarney. The shuttle bus routes will be 'flexible' and involve corner-to-corner drop offs, the council has said. 'Killarney's biggest challenge' The meeting heard that people are deliberately avoiding Killarney because of the chronic traffic congestion which is negatively impacting business. The local chamber of commerce said traffic chaos is now the biggest single issue for the town. The N22 Farranfore to Killarney Road Project is overdue by more than 20 years. Many people believe the project is the ultimate solution to relieve congestion. The 27km road project was unveiled in 2003 but shelved after the economic downturn because of lack of funding. Now estimated to cost in excess of €200m, the project is again going through planning and design procedures. Proposed inner relief roads for the town would bring up to 5,000 cars out of the centre of Killarney, the council meeting heard. :: This article was funded by the Local Democracy Scheme. Read More Kerry council to roll out pilot scheme to detect deer on roads in bid to prevent accidents
Irish Examiner
27-06-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Kerry council to roll out pilot scheme to detect deer on roads in bid to prevent accidents
Authorities are rolling out new technology in Killarney to tackle collisions with 'marauding deer' whose numbers are out of control. The "deer pilot schemes" are needed in a county which suffers more deer collisions than most, a meeting of Killarney Municipal District was told. A 'detect and alert' scheme, which has been effective in Austria, is to be rolled out on a trial basis. 'It detects deer, it detects vehicles,' Frank Hartnett, director of roads services with Kerry County Council, said. A noise deterring deer is emitted when both vehicles and deer are detected — when there is no car passing the deer could continue to cross the road, he said. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has previously said requests by the council — and by the late south Kerry coroner Terence Casey — to erect fencing in accident prone spots, were unfeasible. A number of fatalities and some serious injuries have been linked to deer in the Killarney area. There is no national strategy to tackle deer on roads and Mr Hartnett had put forward Killarney for the pilot schemes to the Transport Infrastructure Network, on the grounds of road safety. In a second scheme, technology used to deter bird strikes in airports is also being rolled out. The pilot schemes are being operated by Kerry County Council and are in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture and University College Cork, the meeting heard. If successful, the schemes will be adopted in other counties where there is risk from road collisions with deer. The deterrent system used in airports is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks, subject to GDPR approval on the R569 Kilgarvan Road off the N22 at a point where deer are known to cross. The detection and deterrent scheme will be put in place in Ballydowney on the N70 on the outskirts of Killarney, where deer cross from the national park woodland to farmland. Several collisions, including two fatalities in which two women lost their lives, are suspected to have involved collisions with deer at and near Ballydowney. Cllr John O'Donoghue of Kerry Independent Alliance welcomed the announcement of the technology. He said he was 'sick' of raising accidents involving deer and he had come across how technology had been used elsewhere. 'The problem is not improving. No one is accepting responsibility for the deer," Cllr O'Donoghue said. This article was funded by the Local Democracy Scheme
