From 01 January 2023, services on bus Route 817 will be replaced by new and expanded services on Route 897 between Kilkenny City and Athy, and by the introduction of additional stops on Route 130/A between Athy and Dublin City.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) has reviewed the performance of Route 817 which currently provides one round trip between Kilkenny City and Dublin City in the middle of the day, 7 days a week . This review identified that since its introduction in 2017 there has been poor usage levels of the service in both directions. Since launching the service has carried an average of only 12 passengers on each bus journey. This figure reduced to 6 passengers on average during the height of the COVID pandemic. Post pandemic, patronage recovered to 9 passengers on average in each direction and has remained at that level.
Through its planning and development work on the Connecting Ireland programme the Authority is aware that funding assigned to this route can be better used to provide a higher-level service to more effectively meet the needs of the areas served. Alternative services will be provided to meet the needs of existing Route 817 passengers and to attract new custom.
Route 897 (Kilkenny City – Athy)
From 01 January 2023 TFI Local Link Carlow Kilkenny Wicklow will operate new Route 897 serving Kilkenny – Castlecomer – Carlow Town – Athy. This new route will run a return service 7 days a week and will also serve areas including Moneenroe, Crettyard, Newtown Cross and Ballylynan. Table 2 links to the Route 897 timetable.
Table 2 below links to the timetable of service that will be provided on Route 897.
Route 130/A (Athy – Naas – Dublin City)
To facilitate customers from areas between Athy and Naas who previously travelled to Newlands Cross on Route 817, route 130/A will serve bus stop no. 2176 at Newlands Cross on the approach to the city centre, from 1st January 2023.
Table 1 below shows the timetable of service that will be provided on route 130/A.
** the table below was correct at the time of publishing in December 2022, for the service launched on January 1st 2023.
Update: Go-Ahead Ireland has introduced a seasonal timetable change for the selected services including 130, which came into effect on the 25th June 2023.
Further Information
Table 1 (** update: note – this was from Jan 1, 2023 – a more recent timetable is available here )
New Seasonal Timetable, 25 June 2023:
Table 2 – 897
Please see more detailed information at the following links
TFI Local Link route information is available on the Transport for Ireland website or on the TFI Local Link Carlow Kilkenny Wicklow website.
