dowlingm
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Richards
exactly. Aer Lingus should only have operationally necessary functions at Dublin Airport with any other functions transferred to Cork/Shannon or off airport lands completely.
With all the destruction Willie Walsh brought on the Aer Lingus brand, he at least sold the paintings on the HQ wall which was a sign of all that was obviously wrong with the old company.
Lexington
I would prefer to see the RevComm and other government departments concentrating their development needs along existing or shortly provided transit corridors – let’s face it if they won’t it’s a bit much expecting the private sector to do so. Putting something at Mahon Point seems very car-centric as the planned transit route in the green route document doesn’t continue beyond Mahon and isn’t due until 2008. Building at Blackpool or Tivoli would bring badly needed regeneration to that area especially if located near IE’s planned railway stations for Mallow/Midleton suburban, or along the Carrigrohane Road QBC.
If Limerick city and county wants to develop in a logical fashion, commuter links are going to have to get better. Ennis-Limerick is running, now hopefully there is progress for Nenagh – but Limerick City and County are going to have to follow through by concentrating development (and Section 49 money) along the line to fund more improvements.
Nenagh Guardian – Breakthrough for rail group
Saturday October 1st 2005
By Simon O’DuffyThe Nenagh Rail Steering Committee was able to announce a major breakthrough this week after Iarnród Éireann gave a commitment to change train departure times and introduce new carriages on the Limerick-Ballybrophy rail line.
The news follows the publication of a survey that found the existing rail service falling well short of public demand. Undertaken by independent consultant group Retail Research Services, this survey was part of the Nenagh Rail Steering Committee’s objective to prove to Iarnród Éireann that the Limerick-Ballybrophy timetable needs to be changed if it is to provide a worthwhile commuter service. Commuters were asked if they would be willing to take the train if it departed Nenagh earlier and returned from Limerick later.
The Retail Research Services study examined over 2,000 households in the Nenagh area and found that about 30% of commuters would be “very likely†to leave the car at home on a regular basis while a further 17% would be “somewhat interested†given the above circumstances. Some 91% of those interviewed said they commute to Limerick in their own car every day; 7% took the bus and 2% said they travel with someone else. 25% claimed that if the times were more suitable and there were more train departures to choose from they would also consider using the train for shopping and leisure pursuits in Limerick. 93% agreed that the train is a more environmentally friendly option than the car.
Pinning down the most suitable departure time was difficult. While two return times of 4.30 in the afternoon and 6.30 in the evening were suitable to most, the surveyors were unable to ascertain the best morning departure time from Nenagh. 78% of respondants begin their Limerick-bound journey at 7.30am, and the indication was that 7.45 or 8am would be around the best time to leave Nenagh at; the current time of 10.30am certainly did not appear to suit anyone.
Other factors taken into consideration were ticket prices and the availability of reliable connecting buses to ferry commuters on from the station at Limerick where necessary. A number of people working at the National Technological Park emphasised that they would only use the service if they could get off the train in Castleconnell and get a bus to the National Technological Park or to the University from there. More than half of those surveyed felt an integrated ticketing service would be of importance here.
In its overall context the survey added further substance to the Nenagh Rail Steering Committee view that the existing Limerick-Ballybrophy rail line serves little or no benefit to Nenagh’s commuters, a significant volume of whom would consider leaving the car at home and taking a differently timetabled train in and out of Limerick.
Taking these findings into consideration, Iarnród Éireann has agreed to alter the Limerick-Ballybrophy timetable in accordance with commuter preference by December of this year. In a statement the national rail company also gave a commitment to work toward allocating additional rolling stock to the Nenagh route as part of its ongoing fleet replacement programme. This rolling stock will become available early in 2007.
Speaking at the launch of the survey at Nenagh’s Civic Offices last Monday, Neangh Rail Steering Committee Chairperson Cllr Virginia O’Dowd said the figures showed that such a commuter service would work. She said that with rising fuel costs and environmental concerns it is time for the Government to move away from its policy of “motorway madness†and invest in public transport.
The Nenagh Rail Steering Committee welcomed Iarnród Éireann’s commitment to retime the afternoon service from Limerick to Ballybrophy, thus making it more attractive for passengers to use and also facilitating day trips to Limerick. Cllr O’Dowd weclomed also the undertaking by Iarnród Éireann to make more rolling stock available to service the Limerick-Ballybrophy line for improved services from 2007. This will include the introduction of a commuter service between Nenagh and Limerick, she said.
The Nenagh Rail Steering Committee now hopes that Iarnród Éireann will take the opportunity to reduce the number of 25mph temporary speed restrictions on the line before the new services are introduced in 2007.
Cllr O’Dowd said this initiative was a joint effort between the Nenagh Rail Steering Committee, Iarnród Éireann and Irish Railway News and was funded by Nenagh Town Council and North Tipperary County Council. The committee thanked the councils for their support. They also thanked Dr Paul Salveson, General Manager of the Association of Rail Partnerships (ACoRP) in England for the work he had carried out on the Ballybrophy to Limerick line and for highlighting its potential as a commuter and tourism line. He said the line has the ideal potential to become Ireland’s first community rail initiative, and urged the appointment of a railway officer to develop the line.
The committee members said they would like to work with Iarnród Éireann and with the local councils towards appointing a rail officer to help promote, market and develop the line. They thanked finally Sean Reidy of Retail Research Services and his team for carrying out the survey.
© Nenagh Guardian
& http://www.unison.ie/The “Irish Embassy” pub in Toronto has a big plaque outside the door declaring the building the “British Colonial Building”. 😀
I’m surprised (as a former UL student) UL never made an arrangement with Milford Hospice to relocate it elsewhere on a phased basis – the noise from a larger and larger campus can surely not entirely suit the hospice either. I’m sure the surrounding area was very suitable when it was built but it is now totally surrounded, especially with the new carpark being built across from the Stables.
(btw Dave123 not sure how you see any similarity between UL and the concrete jungle and 60’s social experiment known as UCD Belfield)
Aer Arann cutting service from 9 – 3 a day is partially a reaction to Ryanair but also because of a big expansion on the Isle of Man to Liverpool and Manchester.
I suspect the increase in pax charge is due to 10L/28R (parallel runway).
MOL is going to be annoyed – Stansted got a lash in the meeja from Ryanair about rolling a huge amount of airport upgrading into a terminal upgrade (90m which BAA represented as 3bn or something).
I wish the Corpo would show the same protection for City Hall, instead of surrounding it with monstrous visual intrusions like the multistory carpark behind it…
@jungle wrote:
At present there is a significant kink in the N25 to get the road into Castlemartyr. The bypass will remove this and be a rare example of a bypass which shortens the route.
Youghal’s cuts a big chunk off too.
Lexington
any chance you could look into the feasibility of the old Cork airport terminal being retained for low-cost use? It’s unlikely it will ever happen but one of the first reactions on another board was “well the old terminal’s PP expires when the new one is commissioned” – odd then that the Airport Authority chairman wouldn’t immediately rule it out.
thanks
all this gets the RPA out of a hole with Metro – after all, it was supposed to run to the Green but they chopped out the bit from O’Connell Street to try and reduce the alarming estimated cost.
thanks Lex – some interesting diagrams here:
http://www.nra.ie/PublicPrivatePartnership/ContractorsNewsletters/file,1325,en.PDFand the rest of the N8 Fermoy newsletters are here:
http://www.nra.ie/PublicPrivatePartnership/ContractorsNewsletters/Well, it seems everyone back home has those camera phones – if there was a website for uploading piccies shaming people who won’t pick up their dogpoo or gum or fagbutts (can’t say that here – means something completely different) and promoted via LiveWhine or PrimeWhine they might do some good!
Wow – if you guys don’t like those trees you’d REALLY hate Toronto – although since the City Council here will actually permit buildings that are taller than your average tree I suppose it does make a difference!
sw101
nothing to me but I don’t care if they do as long as they read and take notice. I do hope they apologise to Paul C though.
If I may say without being branded ageist, it is a pity that certain groups wish to put Cork in some kind of suspended animation when they claim to represent people of an agegroup who were responsible for the electrification of Ireland and the boom years of Lemass and Whitaker. Instead they prey on the fears of elderly people about being dispossed and sent god knows where, to be replaced by whom I wonder?
The fact is that Cork has had unsatisfactory development in the past which led to the decline of the City’s population even while the rest of the county and country increased in numbers. LATSOCL was a barometer of how far Cork had come since and how close it came to screwing it up as it did and where it might go.
I think such groups if actively involved in the transformation of Cork could actually do a world of good and it is up to Cork City Council to find a way out of their dog in the manger attitude to provide an inclusive process of evolution for the City while still allowing people to make a few bob in making Cork a bigger, better place.
Finally, of course Architecture and Planning are different. There is nothing stopping people creating threads to discuss pure architecture and leave those of us who enjoy the holistic (and more accessible to the layman such as myself) discussions of State of Cork to continue on here. To suggest that State of Cork was all about planning was to deny all the swishy scans Lexington provided!
I do think the new forum title is a bit dry. State of Cork was a great title and I’m sure drew a lot of views from the bantering headline alone. In a way it seems the knockers have won by this change alone. Let’s try and retain the humour while softpedalling the acid?
Well – if you value archiseek, it is time to step up and defend it.
Sent to: katie@insidecork.com, eddie@insidecork.com, eoin.english@examiner.ie and features@examiner.ie
Subject: Archiseek.com – not for publication
Dear Mr. English, Mr. Hobbs and Ms. Mythen,It is with no little disquiet I read articles in recent issues of Examiner and Inside Cork relating to archiseek.com.
I am in no way qualified in any form of urban design, merely an interested expatriot who enjoys reading about developments in Cork and Ireland as a whole. Apart from reading and contributing to discussions I have no position of management or material contribution to the Archiseek website.
Interested watchers of any human activity will offer opinions and sometimes they will be over the top to the point of offensiveness. This is the nature of public fora of any sort. It is to the management of archiseek’s credit that the “signal to noise” ratio is actually creditably high compared to other internet forums. Reading the one-sided nature of the articles in question, it must have taken no little effort to seek out the posters who take less care with their words and to so completely ignore the extremely useful information provided by several contributors regarding development in Dublin, Limerick and particularly Cork’s “look at de state of Cork, like”, a discussion thread which at time of writing comprised 1,870 separate contributions alone. Being a subforum about Cork, with the hysteria and the insight comes banter, something that should not have to be explained to Cork newspapers, especially in an era of peoplesrepublicofcork.com or wheresmeculture.com.
While some developers in Cork over the years have made dreadful errors, residents groups have done so too. It is unsurprising that feelings run high. However, we have surely not seen a quantum leap in Irish development since Lemass and this development must be fully debated by the public as we must live with it for the next half century. To oppose an OAP group like CSD must seem like opposing motherhood and apple pie but while they are entitled their opinion, they cannot hold a veto either on planning development or indeed on commentary as to their motivations and the effect their lobbying may have on the progress of Cork development.
Free speech comes with a high cost but it is a cost worth paying compared to than the alternative. A New York Times journalist has just been imprisoned for defending this principle, at a time when Ireland has revisited the Doherty phone taps. If the Irish media take such a dim view of freedom of speech by blithely reprinting pressure group press releases they will find themselves without defenders when Government again seeks to limit press freedom in Ireland.
The publication of these articles and the hysterical responses of certain parties have led to the withdrawal of contributors from the discussion who had provided much light on the often puzzling nature of development and planning in Cork. I encourage you to revisit Archiseek as a normal reader rather than using the Search tool to find quotes to fit the frame you wish to fit on this matter. I also ask that proper facilities for comment be given to the administrators of Archiseek rather than claim they “did not avail of the opportunity” when they themselves were trying to find out what they were being accused of.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Dowling
(address supplied in original)
Toronto, CanadaThe Toronto Star has a very good weekday article called the Fixer, where stupid things like that can be published to shame the City into fixing them. It’s kinda like the People’s Republic of Cork’s “pothole of the month” section. It lists who the responsible person in City government is, how they responded and if it can’t be fixed in a short time they check back a few weeks later to see if anything was done.
