jungle

Although the location doesn’t help, the major problem in Cork is that it only has CAT II ILS, while Dublin and Shannon have CAT III ILS.

Mind you, a further problem is that a number of airlines don’t have either aircraft or equipment to support CAT II. Compare Aer Lingus’ and Ryanair’s low diversion rate to those of Aer Arann and BMI Baby.

@Ebeck wrote:

An easy way to end delays at bus-stops would surely be to let passengers board the bus through the front doors only and let passengers disembark through the middle doors only. I presume the reason it isn’t done in Cork is the unavailability of the swipe access for multiple travel. However the driver should be able to control fare dodgers – they’re can’t be that many – not in Cork anyway, I don’t want to bring Baile Atha Cliath into this thread!! 🙂

It certainly shouldn’t be a problem at suburban stops, where there is usually only two or three people getting on at a time.

However, a number of the buses in Cork don’t have middle doors.

@Spinal Tap wrote:

Passed down O.P.Street last night and some of the street lights are’nt even working and it was dark in parts beyond Seville Menswear.
I am going to open a book on how long the new lighted bollards are going to survive !

The public lighting in the City Centre is in a shocking state. As the evenings draw in, you notice it more. Over Jazz weekend, I remember noting that only two of the six lights on Patrick’s Bridge were working.

The section of Grand Parade between Bishop Lucey Park and Washington Street had no working lights. With the nearby construction work, this made it an intimidating walk after dark.

You can spend all the money you like on CCTV, but good public lighting is still the best way to reduce crime and make people feel safer.

Ironically, it’s not so bad in the suburbs where there are much fewer pedestrians.

@Angry Rebel wrote:

Agree with you and Buttimer (shudder to say it!). I think most of the green routes have been a phenomenal waste of money and are completely ineffective. I am in favour of them, but only if done right, and that includes increasing bus frequencies to a point where the bus lane is an efficient use of finite road space.

I’m in two minds on them. As bus priority measures, they fail miserably. However, they have been generally beneficial for pedestrians on the South Douglas Rd route at least. I suppose most of those would survive if the bus portion was scrapped anyway.

@Spinal Tap wrote:

Yes the No.6 Should run clockwise at a greater frequency as an express through the South Link rather than getting stuck and causing traffic jams in Douglas West.

I don’t know if I agree with this proposal. A decent number of travellers on the bus are students attending Douglas Community and Colaiste Chriost a’ Ri. It wouldn’t work for these passengers, nor would it work for travellers between the South Douglas Road and town.

A possible alternative would be tor run it as a circular route in both directions, so passengers in Grange could get an express service in if desired.

Mind you, I’ve previously said that I’d like to see this route extended to the airport for all the people in Grance who work there and that might not be practical with this proposal.

@corkdood wrote:

Also on the buses isn’t it time to extend the city bus fares to places such as Ballincollig. For example you can travel to Curraheen or Model Farm Road on City Bus routes (number 8 and 5) for 1.30 (single) but City Centre to Ballincollig fares are 2.60.

Doesn’t make sense when Ballincollig is arguably closer to the city (and faster to get to if the bus takes the Straight Road route)

I’m sure there are other examples – this is just one that I am familiar with.

There are examples all over the city.

The 6 to Grange and the 7 to Donnybrook travel several miles beyond Douglas, yet even the near end of the Rochestown Road is on the non city bus fares.

Yet, many of the estates in Rochestown have been there since I was a young kid.

Just to re-emphasise how rubbish the buses in Cork are, I’ll give you a story told by my sister.

She was waiting for a number 7 on the Douglas Road (supposedly one every 20 mins). After 40 minutes, there still hadn’t been one and she phoned Bus Eireann. She was told that there had been a crash (We’ll have to take their word for that) and that the number 7 was disrupted. As she said, what really galled her was that around 5 or 6 Carrigaline, Crosshaven, Haulbowline buses etc. had passed her as she was waiting. Now, normally these don’t stop on the way into the city to provide a speedier service, but how hard would it be to stop them in circumstances where they know the normal city buses aren’t running?

As I’ve posted before, I have some sympathy for those who were opposed to the demolition of Lovett’s. The building is of local historical importance. If development is needed in the area, how about looking at the Murphy’s Haulage yard on the Ballinlough Road. It would come with the added benefit of no more juggernauts on a road that can’t take them.

I also have qualms about suburban medium-rise in general. It’s fine to go up in an area where people walk to work or along the railway lines. I think it’s OK in the Victoria/Dennehy’s Cross area where it is close to CIT and UCC. It’s probably OK around Jacob’s Island where people can at least get straight onto the dual-carriageway. But putting 50 people per acre – all of whom will need to drive to work – into an area with no transport links will lead to clogged up roads and bad local air pollution.

The city needs to go up instead of out, but it needs to be done in a considered way supported by existing or planned infrastructure.

The idea that the new airport is in some way worse than the old one is a nonsense. People don’t seem to have noticed the improvements – no more queueing in the rain for immigration for example.

I can’t say that I have any real issues about the covered walkway between the car park and the airport. Most airports don’t even provide that.

However, some points are real. The trolleys are a disgrace. There aren’t enough and they are unremovable. Surely, this is somewhere to look for a bit of corporate sponsorship to replace them – you buy us a new trolley and we give you 5 years advertising on them.

There’s also the issue of the airbridges/covered walkway. A covered walkway should have been provided along the apron. Some aircraft (e.g. Aer Arann) will never be able to pull up to an airbridge and the cost would have been marginal in the context of the overall project (I would argue that cuts should have been made elsewhere to fund it). The sole airbridge still isn’t in use. As I understand it some of the airlines that use the airport have expressed an interest in using it and haven’t been able to. That situation needs to be rectified quickly.

As for the seats… It is my understanding that this was a deliberate policy to encourage passengers to pass through security as quickly as possible to where there are seats available on the other side. The idea is that arriving passengers don’t need them and that departing passengers should go through as soon as they’ve checked in. It should encourage the smooth running of the airport.

Actually, I’m still a little surprised that Lovett’s isn’t a listed building.

I have a little sympathy for the councillors in this case. High rise development is only appropriate in conjunction with decent public transport (or locations that are walkable to places of employment/retail/entertainment) and neither of the sites mentioned have that. If you put high-rise there and all the inhabitants have to use their cars, the consequence would be havoc on the local roads. And the roads in that portion of the city don’t have the capacity of the ones around Wilton.

High rise along rail lines, bus routes (with at least a bus every 10 minutes) or potential future light rail routes is acceptable, but it’s not appropriate in all locations.

@Praxiteles wrote:

Why are you paying car tax for the maintanance of the roads if you are then charged AGAIN to use them?

There is an alternative for people who don’t want to pay.

The real reason I have no objection is that it allows the finance to be raised for faster completion of the projects, which to my mind is beneficial.