Naas Town Bus Services - A Proposal

transportrian

Hi Everyone!,

I created a proposal to provide town bus services for Naas, Kildare. I'd be interested to hear what people think of the proposals, and what can be changed, removed, or added. I don't live in Naas, but in the near so I have a base understanding of its function and trip generators, if I have not grasped this correctly please let me know if you live in Naas/are very familiar with Naas.

My hopes for town bus services (network if you could call it that) in Naas & Environs are as follows 😛:

A proposal to provide three new routes and extend an existing route to give Naas Town local bus services.

N - Naas Linear. A North-South route from Sallins Train Station to Toughers. Connecting the Naas from the North to the South, this link gives residential areas connections to Sallins Train Station, the Town Centre, Newhall Retail Park, and Toughers Industrial Estate.

NO - An orbital route that would truly connect Naas Town Centre to it's suburbs. Including unlocking potential residential development of lands at the vacant industrial to the North-East and lands surrounding Millennium Park. It would link Monread Shopping Center, The Globe Retail Park, Mauldin's Industrial Estate, Naas Hospital, Kildare County Council Offices, K-Leisure, Millennium Park, and residential areas together and to the town centre at Fairgreen Street and the Dublin Road.

NF - A future route that would connect the North-West of Naas to Sallins in the North to Pipers Hill in the South once lands to northwest of Naas are developed with a link towards the Town Centre being provided. Most importantly linking with the proposed DART station west of the existing Sallins Station as stated in the NTA's 2022-2042 GDA Transport Strategy. 

139 - Extend the existing 139 to reach Naas Community National School.

The plan takes into account Kildare County Council's Local Area Plan and the National Transport Authority's Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy 2022-2042: -

RPO 4.48: Promote the improvement of the transport network within and serving Naas town, including delivery of a robust and efficient walking, cycling and bus network with strong links to Sallins Railway Station, key destinations within the town and to the North West Quadrant and town centre area; 

RPO 4.52: Support the delivery of new and enhanced public transport infrastructure in Naas and Sallins, including Park and Ride and interchange facilities as identified by KCC and the NTA.

Why?:

The population of Naas Town rose by 21.6% from 2016 to 2022, an increase of 4,659 persons. The current population stands at 26,256 (CSO, 2022). The town has no current local bus network. Towns such as Kilkenny, Athlone, Balbriggan, and soon Carlow all have local bus routes. While the town has various bus routes passing through it, it lacks pubic transport that caters to travelling around the town itself. In order to decrease carbon emissions, air pollution, congestion, and car dependency local bus services must be provided. The proposal would align with National, Regional, and Local planning policies and allow the town to grow more efficiently. 

Naas Town Bus Services Proposal.jpg

https://arcg.is/1zWX183

I have attached the ArcGIS link also for those who want to see it more clearly.

banananama

A couple of decent bus routes that could reliably and rapidly get people to/from from the surrounding housing estates to sallins station might be most useful.

We have a population of 26000 and no (practical) way to get to the station!

banananama

I can see your routes attempt this in fairness.

I think the key would be regular local buses, which can access the heart of residential areas quickly, and get around traffic pinch points. Quite achievable if the council were onboard.

banananama

Given your access to ArcGIS, and if you have access to geodirectory, could I suggest that you run 5 minute walktime buffers at 100m intervals in order to estimate the number of households which might access each route.

Then perhaps geo-register and overlay a snap shot of the Google traffic layer at peak hours in order to consider congestion...

If you want to get broad feedback, I suggest you post on the 'naas ball' facebook page...

Citrus_8

139 is too infrequent and should be Naas - Clane - Maynooth stretch at a once an hour frequency. Blue should ideally be extended to serve Castlefen. Red should go via the train station which would add some 6-10 (?) min. And when a new station is opened, red could do the original loop, assuming the old station will be closed and a green line introduced to serve a new station. Perhaps, the red line could go via the new station too (just via Sallins Bypass, turn around and back to the original loop). This most likely would add up to 8 min instead of a possible up to 10 min comparing to the old station. Ideally, 139 should be diverted via a new station. In this case all Naas routes would bring to the train which should ideally be in a town close by the train station.

Tomrota

Naas has a completed fragmented public transport system. Naas is supposed to be a commuter town yet none of its services integrate with Dublin bus, Luas or rail. Its only two PSO routes, Route 139 and 126, don’t even connect with each other or provide much ability for local transport. Those routes could be so much more useful if properly thought out. First and foremost, those two routes need to be overhauled allowing connectivity with other bus services and rail services - an integrated and standardised fare. At present it is almost impossible to use public transport for local trips in the Naas area. For most of the people in the Naas area, it’s impossible to get to the train station, the hospital, the town centre, retail parks, work or schools without using a car. I don’t believe there is anywhere else in the Short Hop Zone that doesnt have frequent double decker buses delivering commuters to the railway station other than Naas. It only makes sense. As things stand it’s a transport, quality of life and environmental emergency.

These new bus routes you propose are quite similar to those which were supposed to be implemented as part of the Naas transport strategy. Naas really does need local bus routes but I think it would be unwise not to consider connectivity between Kill and Naas, and even Naas and Tallaght (hospital, TUD, and shopping). Kill is effectively in Naas - all of Kill residents do their shopping, education, etc. in Naas or Dublin. Therefore when looking at Naas, we must also look at Sallins, johnstown and Kill. Your ideas for extending the 139 are good - I will add that it needs to be better integrated, have more bus stops, standardised fares, real time information, may need double decker buses, and 30/40 minute frequency. I think your Naas linear route captures a huge amount of the population and connects a lot of important destinations and suburbs. However I do think the thousands upon thousands of houses near KCC, Blessington road area, and the Piper’s Hill area are neglected. Connecting piper’s Hill, Blessington road, and Monread to the train station and other key destinations is crucial. Perhaps the “Naas future” route could continue on from the train station down towards Monread and onto johnstown and Kill. That would allow all the areas to be connected.

Any proposed bus route in Naas must have integrated fares with other PSO bus routes, Luas and Irish rail. It is supposed to be a commuter town but the transport system is an unhelpful fragmented mess, requiring most people to drive en masse hence why it has such bad issues with traffic and the N7 is as busy as it is. These issues need to be dealt with soon- thousands of new houses and apartments and there has been very little to no improvement to the transport system in the last decade. Only road building.