Luas operator Veolia Transport has acquired Nestor Bus, the Co Galway firm that was among the first to challenge the monopoly of State company Bus Éireann over regional bus routes.
Turloughmore businessman Pat Nestor and his wife Teresa are the beneficiaries of a transaction which is believed to value their business at more than €1 million. The benefit to the couple, whose business has had difficult relations with Bus Éireann, will be less than €1 million because the company has significant accumulated losses and debts.
Formerly known as Connex, the Paris-based Veolia Transport has long signalled its intention to enter the bus sector after establishing its business here with the Luas operating contract.
"We are very keen to break into the bus market. The start of the Irish operation is Nestor Bus. It coincides with the 20th anniversary of Nestor Bus almost to the day," said Veolia head Richard Dujardin.
While the group is positioning itself to benefit from the Transport 21 initiative, it is also in contention for a new multimillion-euro contract to run a bus service linking the long-term car park at Dublin Airport with the terminal.
The Nestor services link Galway, Dublin and Dublin Airport. Pat Nestor, who declined yesterday to comment on the deal, will stay with the business after the transaction, which closed yesterday.
Long denied a licence to operate a public bus service, he ran the business as a travel "club" with some 6,000 members.
In a High Court action five years ago in which Nestor challenged Bus Éireann's dominance, the company alleged that successive ministers for transport had acted with the State company and its parent CIÉ to operate a closed shop. Nestor claimed gardaí had "hassled" the company at the behest of Bus Éireann and that passengers had not been asked to pay fares on Bus Éireann services that were operated in parallel to Nestor's routes.
The action was ultimately settled. Nestor received 19 licences for daily bus services and the right to compensation for carrying old-age pensioners.
The company attempted in 2003 to provide a service during Galway Race Week between the city and Ballybrit racecourse. However, certain Bus Éireann drivers blocked its buses from departing. Nestor's latest abridged accounts indicate that it had cumulative losses of €227,496 in 2005.
