Cork Transport
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How is it possible in this day and age that the NRA and Irish Rail dont co-ordinate on major projects? what an absolute joke – they are a disgrace
Has anyone noticed the 100 mtr strip of bus lane approaching the Magic roundabout from city. What is that all about? What road rules apply there?
That area can be prone to queueing traffic in the morning and evening rushes, so I guess it gets the Airport/Kinsale/Ballinspittle buses and taxis around the stationery traffic. The same rules would apply as any bus lane in the Cork City Council area. Buses, taxis and bicycles (if you’re mad enough) only Monday-Friday 7:30-9:30 & 16:30-18:30.
If our Jerry is talking through his h**e, will he do us all a faviour and resign?
If he is right I will vote for him again next time around……
………..Cork Airport rejects claims of business slump
By Eoin English
CORK Airport strongly rejected claims last night of a slump in business.Just a week after the release of record passenger figures, Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer said he has received figures which show that in the past 12 months:
* the airport’s retail revenue has fallen by 12%;
* its car park revenue is down 16%;
* and airport operations are down 4% compared with this time last year.
Mr Buttimer said the figures were presented to the Cork Airport Authority this week and point to a financial crisis caused by continuing uncertainty about the airport’s debt levels and its battle to secure independence from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).
The CAA has submitted a draft business plan to the Department of Transport, factoring in its controversial decision to accept €113 million in debt.
However, significant issues need to be clarified before a final plan can be prepared.
But the airport rejected Mr Buttimer’s claims and said passenger figures for the first six months of the year are up 7% for the same period last year.
“The airport’s trading performance broadly reflects this,†a spokesperson said.
More than 1.6 million passengers used the airport in the first six months of the year — up by 100,000 people, or 7%, on the same period in 2007.
The airport said last week that it is on schedule to break last year’s record of 3.2 million passengers.
But Mr Buttimer said he stands over his figures and he called on the Government to address the situation. Years of Government dithering over the airport’s debt and the refusal by the DAA to give the CAA independence are responsible, he said.
He called on the Government and DAA to take leadership by immediately filling the vacant CAA chairman’s position and by clarifying the status of the airport’s debt.
“Cork Airport’s business plan is now effectively redundant due to the current recession, and a new plan must be drafted urgently to address the crisis,†he said.
“There is currently no chairman of the CAA and therefore no-one in situ to provide leadership.
“Even more seriously, the issue of Cork Airport’s outstanding debt has not been addressed and the Government has refused to provide any clarity on this issue for the last three years, in spite of initially promising to relieve the debt in full.â€
CAA chairman Joe Gantly stepped down on Monday. Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, said he hopes to appoint a successor soon.
I wouldn’t be surprised if overall operations were down 4%. The increase in passenger numbers is largely attributable to larger aircraft being used, so you could see a rise in the number of passengers along with a reduction in aircraft movement. There’s also been a decline in the number of freight operators.
I’d be surprised if the car park revenue was down tha much. As passenger numbers are up and car parking fees have risen, it would either imply a much larger increase in inbound passengers or more locals opting for public transport and taxis. Although for me now, if a trip is over three days, it’s cheaper to take a taxi than drive up to the airport and park.
I have no idea about the retail revenue.
He’s certainly right about the lack of direction. The failure to appoint a new chairman at this point smacks of a don’t care attitude.
7% in passenger numbers represents a significant outperformance of the BAA portfolio which rose 1.6% Interestingly Heathrow now lands roughly the same as where it did in 2004. One however suspects that the 2008 full year picture will not be so bright and that numbers may in fact fall.
The real question I would have is not around numbers of flights or the past 6 months of passenger numbers but rather what will the authority offer airlines in terms of concessions to stop flights from the airport being mothballed in November this year and probably January through March 2009.
The NICE decade for airports looks to be well over and it is felt that only airports that take a partnership stance with airlines deploying their resources will deliver for their regions; all regions depend on visitors most particularly out of season.
anyone caught in the traffic up and down to Croker last week for the GAA double header? at least the mitchelstown to cashel bypass provided some relief – any thoughts on how Irish Rail didnt bother with any extra services thereby depriving themselves of a load of revenue and adding a load of cars to the roads?
At the moment, they don’t have enough drivers to operate the service they’re supposed to run on a Sunday, so any match specials are completely out of the question.
Irish Rail is to service the drivers needs only.
Any idea of actually putting on extra services to suit its customers and turn a profit would be completly out of the question.
Privatise now.
It’s not about drivers needs. The drivers have a legal maximum number of hours and anyway most drivers would willingly take the overtime payments. There just aren’t enough drivers.
@bosco wrote:
And when they try to train in new drivers, the existing ones go on strike.
Spot on, and there are more than enough drivers, but antiquated work practices dictate that more than one driver per train is listed on the work roster at any given time to ensure that a train might definitely have a driver (you know in case one stubbed a toe on his way to work etc) The other drivers then go home if there is no train to drive, days work done!
Long live the Union eh?what i wouldnt give to get in there with a business team and change Irish rail – shambles isnt the word
@bosco wrote:
And when they try to train in new drivers, the existing ones go on strike.
Exactly.
Just wait until the new Midleton line starts to get up and running.
The drivers / staff are still living in some unionised utopia and could’nt careless about the customers / taxpayers.
This company is a joke.
Trains getting slower, not faster
May 19th 2008So after near on €1 billion in investment you would imagine the trains would be faster. Faster more powerful trains, modern track, brand new signaling all point to the fact that journey times should reduce but curiously they have increased. While it is true that there are more trains running and that naturally has a side effect on journey times, but wasn’t the new signaling designed specifically with the proposed timetables in mind? Wasn’t over €110 million spent on Heuston station to reduce delays and increase capacity?
Of course Irish Rail put all the tricky work on the long finger, instead of doing it first, so Portarlington was only completed in April 2008, after 10 years with a 30mph speed limit, its now 80mph. Limerick Junction has been reduced to 25mph hopefully rising back to 80mph in 2009 as it was in the 1980’s. Let us not forget the speed restrictions through Ballybrophy are still in place. Let us not forget of the Shannon Bridge on the Sligo line which is in such poor condition trains are forced to reduce speed to only 10mph. We where promised a 100mph railway to Cork, less than 35 miles are currently cleared for 100mph despite the route being the straightest in the country and Irish Rail want more money to deliver the times they promised 10 years ago. Does anyone remember the promise of 90 minutes non stop Dublin Belfast before the investment, we in Rail Users Ireland do, we also recall that a steam train could do the trip in 97 minutes when pushed.
As Irish Rail are so eager to tell us we pay fares in line with the European average, should we not expect a European level of service in return, should our trains not run at respectable speeds, should we not have similar levels of customer service and information as our fellow European’s?
The morning business trains Cork Dublin
1993 with a 2450hp 90mph locomotive
The 7:35 Cork Dublin, 2 stops arrive Dublin 10:05
2 hours 30 minutes2008 with a 3200hp 100mph locomotive
The 7:30 Cork Dublin, 3 stops arrives Dublin 10:20
2 hours 50 minutes20 minutes longer despite, a more powerful locomotive and higher speed running, the extra stop should add only 5 minutes, so 15 minute difference
The evening business trains Dublin Cork
1993 with a 2450hp 90mph locomotive
The 17:30 Dublin Cork, 2 stops arrives Cork 20:00
2 hours 30 minutes2008 with a 3200hp 100mph locomotive
17:00 Dublin Cork, 2 stops arrive Cork 19:45
2 hours 45 minutes15 minutes longer despite, a more powerful locomotive and higher speed running
Best time in the 1970’s was 2:45 non stop with a 75mph top speed
Mallow Cork times
1973 time for a class one (express) train was 28 minutes, 30 for a class two
1993 time typically 28 minutes
2008 time typically 33-35 minutes for Dublin Cork train but only 24-25 minutes for a local Mallow – Cork service
Curious difference the 100mph Cork Dublin Express train takes up to 11 minutes more than the 70 mph commuter train, going the other way both take the same time. Could it be Irish Rail trying to massage the punctuality stats, after all trains from Dublin regularly arrive 10 minutes earlyThere have been a lot of calls for Light rail services in certain areas of the city but I would be interested in board members view on how we have utilised our established suburban service, the Cork – Cobh line.
In my view planners have acted as if it did not exist. Take the Little Island stop with a large area of zoned development land just near it just across the N25. Any development within a 15 min walk from that station should be targeted at maximising the use of this service but lets examine the development that was permitted.
1. An NCT car testing centre.
2. “An post “regional sorting and distribution centre.
3. A Retail park with a couple of acres of surface car parking.
4. A low rise ****hotel on about 4 acres of gardens and car parking.
5. Car sales showrooms.
6. Plant hire and service centre
and most of the rest of the land is taken up with single or two story light industrial, engineering and service centres.
All of the above are car dependant which is totally scandalous. Then across the river you have places like Jacobs island, Harveys quay etc. adding to congestion with very little public transport options.Do you not think that planned development (residential and commercial) along the line, as far as Midleton (on the as yet non existant extension!) counts as planning? Or the substantial development levies they’ve taken off people building within x miles of the lines (can’t recall the exact distance)?
On Little Island, that is a hugely important industrial area. You can also read that as huge industrial area. Would you like to live next to all of that industrial development? Do you not think that all of the people in the places you’ve mentioned (and the hundreds of other businesses you didn’t) need to get to work and might use the train? Drive past Glounthane station in the morning and you’ll see how many use it. [Now, if only some enterprising soul would start a bus route from the station around Little Island…all it would need would be one minibus doing a loop…]
I’m not a huge fan of planning in Ireland, but you have to give credit where it’s due.
The more important issue IMO is whether planners will ignore the muppets like CSD and allow the density within the City limits that would support light rail if it was ever built/to be built.
i was told there will never be a light rail to carrigaline because of the “topography” – dont they have trains in switzerland that essentially go up mountains?
public transport here is a shambles compared to mainland europe
They have trains that can go anywhere – the real question is if these trains also work as on street trams? Carrigaline is a long way out too – to sustain frequency would require quite a number of trains – which might be viable at a certain scale, but Carrigaline is only 12,000 people.
Essentially, it comes down to what kind of service you want or can afford, if the decision is taken to go with light rail. A mid/low frequency service linking Carrigaline (and Douglas) with the city centre would be one thing, a Luas type system running through the city centre would be another.
From some back of the envelope scribbling, (literally) a Luas line with 26-30 40m trams, running from Douglas to Ballincollig, through the Docklands, Railways Station, UCC, CIT etc, with a P+R at both ends, would cost at least €3-400m (capital costs), and that would only go up if you wanted to extend it to Carrigaline (or the airport). Give that I don’t have access to ridership figures, or likely passenger loadings, its impossible to suggest what IRR a proper CBA would churn out, but I would imagine that the Cork area is probably marginal for a light rail system. Any such system would have to be kept simple first, and allow for upgrading at a later stage.
A good first step might be a proper bus service though.
@Pug wrote:
i was told there will never be a light rail to carrigaline because of the “topography” – dont they have trains in switzerland that essentially go up mountains?
public transport here is a shambles compared to mainland europe
Lisbon,Prague and of course San Francisco + plenty of other cities have huge hills and trams for over 100 years.
But this is Ireland.
Punish the motorist and do not provide a cheap,reliable,frequent,clean alternative.
Corks and Irelands light rail & Trams were ripped out years ago.
Shame.
i think carrigaline has about 15,000 people now, you would also have all the workers in Ringaskiddy and the population of crosshaven but I take your point about the viability (I’d also like to see a cost breakdown of a light rail system train out of curiousity) – i just wish politicians would just be honest and say there arent enough people so its not viable –
definitely needs a greater frequency of buses and a nightlink – i tackled local councillors on this and they essentially have no power to do anything apart from writing strong letters – Bus eireann are not answerable to anyone so they dont give a hoot – the one scary power the councillors have is to rezone land, which they duly did in carrigaline recently and when i asked how could they do that given the unbelievable traffic, one councillor said they were afraid the developer wouldnt put in any recreation facilities where they rezoned – arent THEY meant to be in charge of what the developer does and not the other way around?
theres hinting now that even though part of the reason the Port of Cork were refused re Oysterbank was that there was no N28 road to cope with the traffic, now that the road might not be built unless the new port is allowed go ahead there! have you ever heard anything like it
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