The first Optare Alero minibuses to enter service in the Republic of Ireland have joined the fleet of Clare Accessible Transport (CAT) in the west of the country.

CAT is a community transport group set up to provide public transport services across a wide swathe of the eastern side of County Clare. It connects remote rural communities with the county’s main town of Ennis, the national transport network and local services such as shops and post offices. More recent development is focusing on extending the service to provide a county-wide network.

Laura Ward, who manages the company, says that Alero met their principal requirement to have an all low-floor fleet that can be used by people of all degrees of mobility. It also allows all passengers to board the bus by the same entrance without the need for mechanically complicated and time-consuming lifts, thus ensuring equality for all.

The standard seating configuration is to have 13 seats and one permanent wheelchair space. However, the purchase of additional seats and the use of tracking allows the buses to be quickly re-configured to carry 16 passengers or, with all except the fixed back seats removed, up to five passengers in wheelchairs.

The fact that Alero has a large boot was also considered to be a significant safety feature as it allows the safe stowage of passengers’ bags when returning from shopping trips.

CAT is a membership based body with the aim of providing fully accessible and socially integrated services to its growing membership, which currently stands at 2,400. Between them they make more than 3,000 journeys a month on the organisation’s six minibuses.

A network of scheduled services is operated providing links to employment, health, shopping and leisure facilities. Journeys are pre-booked in 95 per cent of cases and all tickets are pre-purchased at local outlets across the operating area, as fares cannot be collected on the buses.

A unique feature of the scheme is that each member has a letter pre-fixed to their membership number, which identifies their particular needs. This not only ensures that the bus can be reconfigured to carry more wheelchairs should demand require that, but also allows users to be given priority if, for example, their membership designation shows them to be without a car or other form of personal transport.

The sophisticated computerised booking system also uses the membership codes to identify where demand is coming from, both geographically and in user-group terms. This enables adjustments to be quickly made to service provision to more accurately reflect the needs of users.

For further information please contact:
Martin Hayes, Communications Advisor, +44 (0) 207 494 8050