{"id":611156,"date":"2026-09-01T11:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/611156\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T11:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:56:18","slug":"beyond-a-joke-back-to-school-gridlock-grips-letterkenny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/611156\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Beyond a joke\u2019 – Back-to-school gridlock grips Letterkenny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letterkenny\u2019s back-to-school traffic nightmare has returned with major delays reported this morning.<\/p>\n

One school bus driver reported taking 37 minutes to travel the short stretch between High Road from the Honeypot cafe to the Hospital Roundabout.<\/p>\n

Leading school bus operator Mc Gettigan Travel was endured major delays across its school services earlier today as traffic crawled through parts of Letterkenny.<\/p>\n

The company said the combination of current road planning, ongoing works and traffic management had become an \u201cabsolute nightmare\u201d, particularly during the busy school and work rush.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beyond a joke,\u201d said Kyle McGettigan as the family-run transport company issued an alert to parents this morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we are once again dealing with severely congested traffic throughout Letterkenny this morning, which is having a major knock-on effect across all of our school bus services,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat should be straightforward journeys are being met with significant congestion on a daily basis, making it increasingly difficult for our drivers to keep to scheduled times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company explained that when one bus becomes trapped in traffic, subsequent school runs are also delayed.<\/p>\n

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It apologised to parents, guardians and pupils and said its drivers were doing everything possible to get children to school safely and as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe traffic conditions are completely outside of our control,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fully understand how frustrating the delays are. We are just as frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is almost a year since work began on the Kilmacrennan Road Active Travel Project between the Hospital Roundabout and Knocknamona Roundabout.<\/p>\n

Works have involved narrowing the existing carriageway to two traffic lanes, alongside the development of new pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The scheme is intended to improve connections between residential areas and Letterkenny University Hospital, St Conal\u2019s Hospital, Errigal College and the town centre.<\/p>\n

Works are due to complete by end of September 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A visualisation of the Letterkenny Town Active Travel Project \u2013 R229 Kilmacrennan Road<\/p>\n

Work is continuing around the High Road and Hospital Roundabout, including traffic light ducting, the hospital bus set-down area, the new Emergency Department junction and pedestrian crossing facilities.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, roadworks are also progressing on another key route between Ballyraine Roundabout and Creamery Roundabout.<\/p>\n

The Ballyraine stretch was also hit by significant delays on Monday evening as traffic increased at the end of the Northern Ireland Bank Holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Letterkenny\u2019s back-to-school traffic nightmare has returned with major delays reported this morning. One school bus driver reported taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-611156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}