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Taxi drivers protesting in Denny Street on Thursday afternoon. Photo by Dermot Crean
TRAFFIC around Tralee was disrupted on Thursday afternoon as local taxi drivers held a slow-drive protest in convoy around town for two hours.
The drivers were highlighting the issue of the location of the new main rank since The Mall has been closed off to them since May.
The taxi drivers say their incomes are being hit as the public are not using the new rank situated near Boots at the Tesco car park in the town centre.
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We hopped into the taxi with Terry Boyle, Chairman of the Tralee Taxi Association, at the start of the protest and he said they had to take some sort of action to highlight the issue.
“I don’t want to be doing this and the drivers behind me don’t either, but we have to try to get some reaction. The big problem is the public aren’t buying into it [the new rank], they’re not using it. There’s a reluctance to come down there. Last Tuesday week we had a driver who between 8am and 1pm took just €18. After 8pm it’s a write-off down there,” said Mr Boyle.
“At night-time, some drivers have resorted to parking near the Bank Of Ireland on Castle Street. There are arrangements where certain loading bays become ranks at night — near the Brogue, Cassidy’s Restaurant and Hennessy’s — but the problem is we can’t get on them, because people have parked their cars there.
“The traffic wardens finish at 5.3opm so there’s no one there to police it, the gardaí aren’t clear about what can be done in terms of enforcing it. We’ve requested a meeting with them to see what can be done so it’s a mess at the moment,” he said.
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At the moment there is limited trade at the rank near Shaw’s Department Store, but otherwise people don’t know where to got to get a taxi.
“If you were to ask people from Tralee where is the taxi rank, it’s likely that 75% of them wouldn’t know, so if you’re a visitor to the town you haven’t a hope,” he said.
Taxi drivers have met with Council officials who have ruled out a rank on Denny Street or the Mall area. The drivers are now seeking a meeting with the County Manager to see if they can find some sort of solution to a situation Mr Boyle described as “bonkers” at the moment.
When the works are completed in November, a night-time rank will be introduced in the Mall, but the drivers fear this won’t work because people will use it for parking, as is happening now on the night rank on Edward Street outside the old ESB offices.
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“The preferred option for us is lower Mall/Bridge Street or Denny Street. We need a 24 hour working rank that people know and recognise,” he said.
“We’re getting no answers at the moment and incomes are way down. We have about 104 taxis operating in town, but in the past few weeks four or five have got out, saying they’ve had enough because of overheads.”
Mr Boyle said he expects more drivers will get out of the business in the coming months due to the 10 year rule — where no taxis can be over ten years old — and he says it’s unlikely they will invest in new vehicles.
The taxi drivers have contacted Tralee Municipal District councillors about the situation and four of the nine responded to their emails as of Thursday morning.
The taxi drivers will hold a similar protest tomorrow afternoon around town between 12noon and 2pm.
As a Tralee person, I disagree with the rank being positioned in lower Mall/Bridge Street or Denny Street.
The current rank location at Shaw’s Department Store is a joke.
Maybe, Courthouse lane would be more appropriate and accessible via Ashe Street or Lower Castle street for the rank?
I agree with the comments the Mr Marty o Leary maded.All business in the town centre are down do to road works and most shops are running sales.If you want people to drive into town centre to do business you don’t want prime parking spaces taken over by taxis to
I was in my home town of Tralee recently on an annual visit from Dublin and was looking for a taxi after a night out I thought it was a joke could not get one taxi to drive us back to where we were staying ended up walking back
I was back in Tralee recently and the transformation to Denny Street was breathtaking it brought me back to my youth in town with the beautiful wide street back to its former glory . The new two way system is also wonderfull as you drive up into the town centre its a beautifull sight with the Green to your right once again a wonderfull planning decision. With regards the Taxis well I think the bully boy antics on Thursday last week indicate that they appreciate non of the above and are only thinking about themselves and not the general view of Tralee dwellers who are delighted to have their town back . For years it was a disgrace to see Taxis parked along the Town Centre it was like you had no privacy when you walked through town .Tourists come to Tralee to shop in town and look around our wonderfull town centre Thank You Tralee Town Council for giving Tralee back too the people. Parking for taxis in my opinion would be best served as in other towns just off the Main Street Shaws Lane , Ashe Street and perhaps some spaces down Denny Street which was a Traditional parking area and as one taxi left another could feed in from one of the others ranks .