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Move from West to East proved best down the road for Bartons Transport
When John Barton decided to avail of the Government’s Land Commission scheme to move his family from Castlemaine in County Kerry to Kilcock, County Kildare, he could never have imagined that eighty years and three generations later, the decision would herald the start of one of Ireland’s largest and most successful coach operations. Moving from the family farm in the 1960s, John opened a shop with petrol pumps attached in Maynooth. Shortly afterwards, in 1963, his son Pat recognised the need for a public transport service in the area. Pat bought his first Volkswagen minibus, which serviced the shop during the week, while at the weekends, it was repurposed into a hackney service vehicle by refitting the seats. It was at this time that Pat Barton decided to concentrate on passenger transport exclusively. In 1967 he purchased his first coach, a Bedford 35-seater. Key revenue streams were from the newly established school transport scheme and growing private hire bookings driven FLEETBUS&COACH | WINTER 2021
by bingo runs and the popular weekend dance hall services. In the mid-70s, to address the public transport service gap, PS Travel in conjunction with Bartons Transport developed a network of express service routes across the island. Facing continuous resistance from Government to opening public transport routes to private companies resulting in an the anti-competitive environment, the partnership overcame these challenges by creating travel clubs. These enabled PS Travel and Bartons Transport to legally transport passengers every weekend to locations all over Ireland. The demand grew exponentially over a short period and served to highlight the inadequacies of the public transport system. This was the beginning of the private operator entering the public transport service market. In 1985, the company moved to a purpose-built site in Maynooth and continued to expand its services. After completing his college education, Pat’s
son Feargal joined the company in the early 90s. With Feargal’s arrival, he identified new opportunities in the marketplace. While school transport was, and remains a big part of Bartons Transport’s annual revenue, many new streams of income have been added over the last thirty years.
Barton’s continued to expand its services, with a specific emphasis on the growing corporate services market, which includes Cruise Liner services, corporate, incentive travel, and coach tourism. A Progressive Operator Bartons Transport operates a fleet of 50 plus coaches, which uniquely positions the company to manage large movements of people. In addition to providing transport, it also offers logistical advice on managing complex transport requirements for clients. In 2019, Bartons Transport was responsible for managing transport services for the Google Global Conference which involved moving 5,000 passengers across a multitude of locations and various times.
