jungle
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@THE_Chris wrote:
Heres my phase 1 concept. Personally, I think it is far better than that puddle of electioneering the Greens have thrown at us.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/THE_Chris533976/corklightrail1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/THE_Chris533976/corklightrail2.jpg
Thoughts?
You certainly have one thing right there compared to the Greens. The line to CIT should continue to Ballincollig. It would be idiotic to go to Ballincollig and not provide a service for people heading to CIT.
Looking at the Greens proposal, it stinks of wanting to repoen old rail alignments rather than serve the current population centres.
I’d also have an issue with where they are planning to cross the river. If you’re coming from the South East, Parnell Bridge is your last realistic crossing point.
With your maps, I’d have some doubts as to whether a tram could make it directly up the hill to the airport. It would probably have to come across at an angle to reduce it. A service that ran through Douglas and Grange or through Bishopstown and the upper parts of Togher would be more practical.
Would it make sense to extend an airport LUAS to Carrigaline instead of going up from Mahon?
@fergalr wrote:
Connelly is on the Maynooth/Greystones line, too.
Why is St. Stephen’s Green being fetishised as a destination?If you went Connolly-Broadstone-Heuston, you’d end up missing the Docklands, missing the CBD around Baggot St and Leeson St and missing the High St area (which has no rail-based public transport at the moment). Instead, you’d create a line that already closely follows an existing LUAS line.
Trying to summarise the pros and cons
Pros
- It would bring a boost to an area of Dublin that needs it
- Extra capacity for terminating trains in Dublin City Centre
Cons
- It could undermine the case for the interconnector
- It would use an alignment that should be used by LUAS (Is this Irish Rail’s intention?)
- It doesn’t integrate well with public transport
- It’s quite a stretch from Dublin City Centre
Any to add to that?
@jungle wrote:
another motorway going west that would split for Limerick and Waterford at some point in the Midlands
As many of you probably guessed, that should have read Limerick and Galway.
I never understood why the motorway network had to so closely mirror the existing road network.
If you’d created a motorway from Dublin that went west of Carlow and east of Kilkenny and then split for Cork and Waterford with another motorway going west that would split for Limerick and Waterford at some point in the Midlands, you could have achieved the same coverage for much less motorway built. Instead, we have to get motorways that follow almost the exact route of the N6, 7, 8, 9 etc where there were already decent enough roads.
Those living in apartments complain about inadequate storage space, insulation and the size of their kitchens. They also worry about security, and don’t like the views from their concrete boxes.
All but the last of these are symptoms of bad apartment design, rather than apartments being problematic in pricipal.
Her overall thesis is a bit spurious. The same could have been said about inner city terraced housing as the first semi-detached suburbs were in place. Not many of them are lying vacant at the moment.
It’s hard to blame Irish Rail for this one.
There’s not a lot they can do until the minister gives them the go-ahead.
Compared to other sections of government, they’ve a fairly good record of bringing projects in on-time and on-budget. That is on-time and on-budget after it’s finally got out of the DOT.
There could be an interesting situation developing in Cork Docklands as a result of Doyle Groups possible takeover of Irish Continental.
To fund the bid, Doyle Group would have to either sell their land holdings in Cork Port or use it as collateral for a loan. In the first scenario, this could see substantial development land (valued at 250million) getting released in the port area.
@browser wrote:
Given that the members have apparently voted in favour of moving, is the development a fait accompli or, God forbid, is there any chance it won’t be zoned? It seems amazing they are so confident of changing the zoning in the first place……
I should express an “interest” in this regard as I live on Maryborough Hill but really and truly that road can’t take however many thousand of houses are planned. Equally, whatever happened to the concept of a green belt?
The deal gives Castlelands three years to secure rezoning of both Douglas GC and the proposed new course. If they haven’t at the end of that period, they can pay Douglas GC 5 million and walk away from the deal. Alternatively, they can hand over 2 million and get another 2 years to try to secure rezoning.
The site has access on to the (old) Carrigaline Road too, so that would take some of the traffic.
As for the Green belt concept… To my mind, the whole idea of satellite towns is even worse. It just detaches the sprawl from the city a bit and creates longer journeys. However, I would like to see green/recreational spaces retained in the suburban areas and I’m not 100% comfortable with the situation with Douglas GC or Cork Con. It’s also notable that the post 1970 suburban areas have less recreational space than the older ones, so losing them in these areas is especially undesirable.
@Praxiteles wrote:
Is this an accident or another example of the brain-power employed in the design of the new terminal?
I’m not sure. Historically, Cork has only accepted wide-bodies for the occasional charter flight, so it may have been deemed unnecessary. Shifting the whole development 20m to the north could have allowed at least one of the (potential) airbridges to be available for widebodies. It does seem to show tremendous lack of foresight, because it’s a quite difficult problem to rectify afterwards.
@mickeydocs wrote:
I’m amazed that this line doesn’t stop at connolly… who exactly is it supposed to serve?
There’s no platform space at Connolly and no room to build any more. It’s worth remembering that it’s a temporary station that’s in place until the interconnector gets built. At that point, there should be two lines in Dublin – Drogheda-Kildare (via Docklands) and Maynooth-Bray (via Connolly).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dublin_interconnector_tunnel_map.png
I don’t expect Aer Lingus to consider transatlantic from Cork.
With the length of Cork’s runway and the aircraft that Aer Lingus own, it’s not likely to be a profitable operation.
In a further twist, wide-bodied aircraft (A330/340/350, B747/767/777/787) can’t park at the one and only airbridge at Cork Airport. The wide-bodied stands are where the cargo aircraft currently park.
If we see trans-atlantic from Cork, I’d say the most likely scenario is a US operator using 757s or 737ERs – Continental and Delta being the prime candidates.
To be honest, we don’t need the entire city covered in 4 or 5 storey apartment blocks. The population is not going to increase by enough for that to be the solution. We will need some and it’s better that the city council identifies areas that can take them in terms of traffic flow, public transport, infrastructure and amenities instead of just throwing them up anywhere.
It actually strikes me that what the city could do with at the moment is more terraced housing, particularly three storey terraces (with decent floor area), which are feasible as family homes. The best examples all seem to be over 100 years old. The fixation seems to be with apartments and semis.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned here is that the city council are considering handing over Christ Church (former city records office) to the Triskel for use as a perfromance space.
I don’t know if this would be in addition to their current premises or would involve them moving out of there with that location coming onto the market.
@Micko wrote:
Anyone have any information on the potential sale of Douglas Golf club ?
The last thing I heard from a club member was that they were considering the sale seriously. The offer to get two courses for their existing one is attractive, but more significant is that as the land around the course has been developed for housing and roads, the course has been forced back from its perimeter and become steadily smaller. As it is expected that this process will continue, there are doubts over the viability of the current location.
@Pug wrote:
Developers have applied for a 5 storey building with 65 apartments and 104 spaces at the former Dunmahon Esso Station in Douglas. I expect local residents will take a close look.
My parents live pretty close to the development. The first they heard of it was a letter from Cllr Terry Shannon saying that he was going to fight it on their behalf. Not a word of why it should be fought.
The design actually tries to take into account the concern of local residents. The 5 storey portion is in the middle and it tiers down so that the edges would not be much higher than the roof apex on a 2 storey house.
My parents are not opposed to the development in principle, although, my mother was concerned that the drawn builing didn’t look like it could fit into the site (My father was also amused that the Douglas Rd looked as wide as a motorway in it).
Unfortunately, when councillors like Cllr Shannon adopt the position of the people’s champion, the onus is going to have to fall on developers to liaise with local communities during their design process. If locals had been made aware of the development and seen the developers talking to them, such political oppotunism might have some chance of being stopped.
I never understand the fascination with reopening the old terminal. Operating two terminals would be prohibitively expensive when the new one can easily be expanded to handle up to 5 million. Also, Ryanair don’t run airports; it would be impossible to squeeze themselves.
Anyway, the old terminal should be knocked soon. The best way to see the situation is that if you occupied every stand at the airport, the new terminal could cope. On the other hand, apron space is severely lacking. Some aircraft (business jets, not scheduled passenger services yet) have had to be turned away because there was nowhere to park them,
Ring road to undergo noise level survey
A NOISE survey is to be carried out along Cork’s main ring road to see if traffic noise levels are within EU limits.
The South Ring Road has passed a key traffic volume marker and will be included in a National Roads Authority noise mapping exercise being carried out on some of the country’s busiest main roads.
It is due for completion in June and will recommend methods of tackling areas where noise levels are above the permitted levels introduced by the EU in April.
The completed survey will be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency by July 2008 before being forwarded to the EU Commission.
Fianna Fáil TD John Dennehy welcomed the survey.
“The EU regulations are a welcome breakthrough in the battle between local residents and public representatives on one hand and road design personnel and engineers on the other,†he said.
“There is a need for balance and residents along this road have suffered because that balance has not been achieved.â€
I would guess that the sections through Douglas and between the Togher and Sarsfield Rd exits are the most likely to be over any noise limits. Some of the problems can probably be dealt with by putting up noise screens, but it’s conceivable that an 80 km/h speed limit would be put in place in parts to keep the noise (and other pollution) down.
What I’d like to see is a system where a light-rail network could be set up and then sections of it put into cut and cover tunnels later. It’s something they should look at in Dublin too. Once a few more lines are established, putting the line from Blackhall to Connolly underground would be an obvious step.
While it can appear a wasteful way of doing it, it does mean that a light rail system can be put in place much more quickly.
It’s how the developed the tram network in Brussels and they’ve just completed a similar project in The Hague to take the tram lines off the major shopping streets.
@rebel_city wrote:
I hear TK Maxx are interested in opening a store in the city centre. They are in talks with the Owen O’Callaghan. Also, I’ve heard the Savoy was sold – I hope it’ll be retained as a music venue.
It was bought by the Rebel Bar Group – owners of Redz, Paddy The Farmer’s and Instinct among others. That should guarantee that it remains as some kind of licensed premises.
@rebel_city wrote:
Hey Bosco, is that tower image the Riverpoint building in Limerick by any chance??
It’s too tall. Riverpoint is only 13 storeys. There seem to be more on that building.
It reminds me of one of Ballymore’s planned buildings in London Docklands. It might be that?
As for the image… I agree that aside from the tower element, it’s a bit too bland. Also, the tower itself could be another 20% taller to give it a more slender appearance.
