Not all happy as new bus office opens

April 1987

DUNDALK’S long-awaited new bus office at the Long Walk opens to criticism of the building’s design from CIE workers and inspectors.

There is unrest at the lack of accommodation for staff, and the fact that the parcels office telephone isn’t connected, leaving the service to continue to operate from Ardee Road, and the dangers posed by the car park opposite the building.

Oliver Allen, chairman of the action committee which opposed the closure of the old bus office, and then relented on the undertaking that a new building would be constructed, says the offices are ‘ an embarrassment.’

‘Obviously, the people who designed them know nothing about passenger traffic. I’m totally dissatisfied,’ he adds.

Mr. Allen accuses CIE of a lack of consultation with workers on the ground, and as a consequence, the building is too small and too close to the road, and liable to cause traffic disruptions with motorists pulling up outside on the Long Walk to drop or collect parcels.

The old bus office at the Market Square closed in October, 1985, with the urban council threatening to evict CIE.

Bus workers protested, but finally agreed to leave on being given an undertaking that a new building would follow. They were promised that the offices would be built by March, 2016.

The parcels office as a result is moved to the CIE garage on the Ardee Road, and passengers are left to wait in the open, exposed to the elements, and an easy target for assault or robbery.