Cowens Economic Recovery Plan No Motorways

Sponge Bob

The Atlantic Road Corridor gets two mentions but CYCLING gets 7 mentions thanks to Eamon Ryan

http://193.178.1.117/attached_files/Pdf%20files/Building%20Ireland%E2%80%99s%20Smart%20Economy.pdf

The government does not commit itself to COMPLETING the Atlantic Road Corridor or indeed to build or improve any other road anywhere. Page 91

"Building a smart economy" surely involves clearing out bottlenecks like Claregalway and Longford !

Continue investment under Transport 21 concentrating in particular on the following priorities:
(i) completion by 2010 of the five major inter-urban motorways;
(ii) continuing development of the Atlantic Road Corridor;

Transport 21 is dead !

BrianD

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The Atlantic Road Corridor gets two mentions but CYCLING gets 7 mentions thanks to Eamon Ryan

http://193.178.1.117/attached_files/Pdf%20files/Building%20Ireland%E2%80%99s%20Smart%20Economy.pdf

The government does not commit itself to COMPLETING the Atlantic Road Corridor or indeed to build or improve any other road anywhere. Page 91

"Building a smart economy" surely involves clearing out bottlenecks like Claregalway and Longford !



Transport 21 is dead !

Is Longford not bypassed?

Victor

BrianD wrote: »

Is Longford not bypassed?

Only on the N4, not on the N5.

L1011

Victor wrote: »

Only on the N4, not on the N5.

And with a low capacity, roundabout laden single carriageway. Its better than passing through the town, however.

The N5 single carriageway bypass link to the N4 is notable in how little it was going to cost for a project thats been canned.

Cool Mo D

The infrastructure section in the recovery plan is exactly the same as the budget. It says nothing at all about any project not already started.

Lennoxschips

The Irish economy is predicted to contract by 4.6% in 2009, with increased unemployment and a return of emigration.

The Atlantic Corridor is about as high priority as an Irish space programme at the moment. And rightly so.

On yer bike.

HonalD

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The Atlantic Road Corridor gets two mentions but CYCLING gets 7 mentions thanks to Eamon Ryan

Sponge Bob, thanks for the link - but why the sad face about cycling?

strassenwolf

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Transport 21 is dead !

While sad, that is not really a surprise.

And the removal is when, and to where?

The National Archive?

Sponge Bob

Cloud Cuckoo Land I would think

The fetid stench of Eamon Ryan infests this document . It is not a blueprint for a smart economy but rather an opportunity for that man to peddle his fundamentalist dystopianism in duplicate

DWCommuter

strassenwolf wrote: »

While sad, that is not really a surprise.

And the removal is when, and to where?

The National Archive?

Its unforgiveable. The FF lead Government pissed around with projects for years as money poured in and then was bled out via wastage of the highest order. It was only at the end of 2005 that they officially committed to anything. 20 months later, the writing was on the wall. As this recession takes hold, I think its a wonderful opportunity to re-evaluate public transport requirements as T21 was flawed anyway. The only transport leagacy from the boom years are the inter urban motorways.

BluntGuy

Lennoxschips wrote: »

The Irish economy is predicted to contract by 4.6% in 2009, with increased unemployment and a return of emigration.

Ah, the return of an old friend. How I've missed you. Except this time we'll have the Eastern Europeans joining us in our efforts to flee.

As for the "Economic Recovery Plan"... it was more like the brochure for a real economic recovery plan.

I wouldn't waste my time reading it again. It's all lame aspirational waffle with very few concrete commitments or strategies outlined, just a broad re-hash of things we've heard before and things that should've been done when we had some damn cash.

By the way, Page 97 is the page you'll find the transport infrastructure outlined on.

Brian Cowen wrote:

We aim to develop a smart economy and become known as the innovation island.

I had to laugh. This is the epitome of the entire plan. Aspirational drivel.

I did however agree with this particular line:

Brian Cowen wrote:

We must focus spending on areas of greatest priority and reduce sharply those activities which are not essential.

Such as the health service, Brian? :mad:

Anyway, this a transport thread not a politics one so I won't drag this off-topic any further. All I can say is that there has been no change to the situation in transport. Whether private car-based or public...

orbital83

Lennoxschips wrote: »

The Irish economy is predicted to contract by 4.6% in 2009, with increased unemployment and a return of emigration.

The Atlantic Corridor is about as high priority as an Irish space programme at the moment. And rightly so.

On yer bike.

The next time I need to send a lorry load from Cork to Galway or a same day courier delivery from Sligo to Limerick, I'll remember that.

Presumably, all the companies will remember it too as they relocate abroad, because our basic infrastructure has been starved by pinko lefty tree hugging loonies with a strange smoky smell off them.

4.6% contraction in the economy? Sure that must be 4.6% less carbon emissions - Ryan must be delighted!

Lennoxschips

smart economy... innovation island...

they're over a decade too late

Lennoxschips

John J wrote: »

The next time I need to send a lorry load from Cork to Galway or a same day courier delivery from Sligo to Limerick, I'll remember that.

Presumably, all the companies will remember it too as they relocate abroad, because our basic infrastructure has been starved by pinko lefty tree hugging loonies with a strange smoky smell off them.

What are you talking about, it's nothing to do with treehuggers, there's no money to pay for the Atlantic corridor. They're cutting back on health, education, pensioners... and motorways too. We're in the middle of a burst property bubble and global financial crisis, both at the same time.

Schuhart

BluntGuy wrote: »

By the way, Page 97 is the page you'll find the transport infrastructure outlined on.

Page 97 is also where you'll see a howler (that also appears on page 22). It says that €2 billion will be invested in Dublin Airport. Whoever cut and pasted this yoke together apparently didn't know that the DAA announced yesterday that they are scaling back their investment programme.

I'd feel this probably reflects the depth of thought that's gone into this thing.

AlekSmart

Well since we already know,thanks to the Dàil Committee on Transport,that entire sections of the Dept of Transport DO NOT communicate with EACH OTHER then I suppose their divirce from the reality of the DAA plans can be more readily understood.

Crikey the performance of the Cabinet was particularly lame at the Press Conference....but worse still was the fact that the entire bunch just LOOKED deadbeat.........I felt that E Ryan appeared particularly lost...blinded by the glare of the headlight of an approaching Locomotive....:eek:

jank

Lennoxschips wrote: »

What are you talking about, it's nothing to do with treehuggers, there's no money to pay for the Atlantic corridor. They're cutting back on health, education, pensioners... and motorways too. We're in the middle of a burst property bubble and global financial crisis, both at the same time.

Exactly. Blaming the lack of movement on road building on the greens is an illusion. There is no money for anything new really! Greens or no greens.

The greens as far as i can see are having very little voice in government anyway except for some media catching vrt changes. FF are the cancer of the last 10 years that has runied this country. Blame them for the mess we are in. Believe me this will take a good 5-8 years to get us out of this mess. 2009 is a write off. Dont hold your breath for 2010 either. After that all bets are off!!

heard somewhere that the country could become insolvent in 6 months. Welcome back IMF!! If that happens at least they could fire most of the management of the Civil Service. Every cloud..

What we need now is all parties to come together with industry leaders like o'leary and co. to form an emergency economic commision and tell us how to get ireland inc back to some growth again (no developers!). The public have lost their faith in this government.

Anyway what is wrong with cylce lanes. We are way overly dependant on over seas energy and any attempy to fix that should be welcomed. I dont expect anything to actually happen on the ground though as this crowd will fumble over how to impliment this plan.

Irish and Proud

MYOB wrote: »

And with a low capacity, roundabout laden single carriageway. Its better than passing through the town, however.

The N5 single carriageway bypass link to the N4 is notable in how little it was going to cost for a project thats been canned.

Imagine not being able to commit to a 2km S2 link - Pathetic! :mad:

markpb

John J wrote: »

Presumably, all the companies will remember it too as they relocate abroad, because our basic infrastructure has been starved by pinko lefty tree hugging loonies with a strange smoky smell off them.

It's good to see people are still falling for the usual mudstick used by FF - cancel and important project, hint that it's their partners in government fault and they get off scott free. First it was the PDs, now it's the Greens.

Do you honestly think removing a few piss-poor cycle lanes from the budget would leave enough money to pay for the ARC?

Irish and Proud

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The Atlantic Road Corridor gets two mentions but CYCLING gets 7 mentions thanks to Eamon Ryan

http://193.178.1.117/attached_files/Pdf%20files/Building%20Ireland%E2%80%99s%20Smart%20Economy.pdf

The government does not commit itself to COMPLETING the Atlantic Road Corridor or indeed to build or improve any other road anywhere. Page 91

Maybe the M18 and M20 motorways, but no M11 or DOOR or congestion busting projects like the N5 in Longford or N22 in Macroom.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

"Building a smart economy" surely involves clearing out bottlenecks like Claregalway and Longford !

Well surely it would!!!

The government should adapt a realistic road strategy now and work off a list of traffic blackspots (congestion or safety issues), and take 5 or so a year. So, maybe 2010 should include N5 Longford Link, N22 Macroom bypass, N11 2+1 retrofit (defer M11 scheme and upgrade to WD2 between Arklow and Rathnew to allow for additional lanes like the M4), N11 Tap to 1+1 (11.5m) standard, and N17 Claregalway Ring.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Transport 21 is dead !

Well, I wouldn't go that far - but it's certainly being hard-pruned!

Regards!

HonalD

Irish and Proud wrote: »

Imagine not being able to commit to a 2km S2 link - Pathetic! :mad:

Think Cost Benefit for one - I'm not arguing against the N5 link BUT not sure it stacks up now.........

SeanW

HonalD wrote: »

Think Cost Benefit for one - I'm not arguing against the N5 link BUT not sure it stacks up now.........

Methinks HonalD has never had to deal with traffic in Longford town ...

HonalD

SeanW wrote: »

Methinks HonalD has never had to deal with traffic in Longford town ...

Unfortunately, I reckon I 've expereinced a lot more about traffic in Longford than the people of Longford - But I haven't been there for 18 months.

There is a by-pass for the N5 along a back lane at present for those who are interested. But thanks for the vote of confidence SeanW - my original comment still stands!

murphaph

SeanW wrote: »

Methinks HonalD has never had to deal with traffic in Longford town ...

Don't worry. The recession will take a lot of that traffic off the roads. Serious.

ardmacha

Don't worry. The recession will take a lot of that traffic off the roads. Serious

Back to the 80's, not much traffic , but I'll only have a rusty Datsun :mad:

murphaph

There's going to be a serious drop in the standard of living of all those <cough> people who built/bought McMansions in the middle of nowhere. Best of luck heating it and getting to and from it in your SUV to civilisation (whilst on the dole). Our european cousins who live in apartments in cities, can at least still get around when they lose their jobs!

Unsustainable Ireland comes home to roost.

strassenwolf

I have only yet seen an outline of this latest plan.

I haven't yet seen all the press releases which usually accompany these big events in Dublin Castle.

So...what's this latest initiative being called?

Economy21?

DWCommuter

murphaph wrote: »

There's going to be a serious drop in the standard of living of all those <cough> people who built/bought McMansions in the middle of nowhere. Best of luck heating it and getting to and from it in your SUV to civilisation (whilst on the dole). Our european cousins who live in apartments in cities, can at least still get around when they lose their jobs!

Unsustainable Ireland comes home to roost.

Now you're talking my language.:D Thats why its important that we establish all this now. The country desperately needs an independent transport voice urgently to remind the Government and opposition of the mistakes made and consequences. Beating them with this stick will ensure it never happens again. We must draw something positive from the negativity we've been plunged into. Just think back to the 70s when CIE drew up a rail plan for Dublin. Phase one eventually got built, despite the negative commentary of some like Sean Barrett. Furthermore the Government then went and redirected EU(EEC) funds and forced CIE to borrow for the project. (putting a poor company in an even poorer position.) There was no organised lobby back then. No alternative opinion that represented the ordinary tax payer. This time a coherent timeline of events must be documented and made available to all, especially the media. The dithering and the wastage must be held up as a gross dis-service to the nation.

ardmacha

There's going to be a serious drop in the standard of living of all those <cough> people who built/bought McMansions in the middle of nowhere. Best of luck heating it and getting to and from it in your SUV to civilisation (whilst on the dole). Our european cousins who live in apartments in cities, can at least still get around when they lose their jobs!

Many of these people will be enjoying the amenities of their native area even if they are not rolling in money. We all know about the wonderful quality of life in apartment blocks where everyone has lost their job. :rolleyes:

murphaph

ardmacha wrote: »

Many of these people will be enjoying the amenities of their native area even if they are not rolling in money. We all know about the wonderful quality of life in apartment blocks where everyone has lost their job. :rolleyes:

Aye, that's why suicide in rural Ireland is so low, not. Children who can't play with other children because they all live so far away from each other. Adults who can't go for a sociable drink together. Idyllic stuff. In any case, they won't be able to repay their mortgages with no job alternatives in their one horse towns with one (closed) factory-all hail decentralistaion. The NSS, what happened to that?

Living in cities brings economies of scale. If you lose your job in factory A, there is at least a chance of finding alternative employment in factory B-Z. If you live in a town that is entirely dependent on one or two factories for employment, you are less likely to find alternative employment.

Amtmann

murphaph wrote: »

Children who can't play with other children because they all live so far away from each other. Adults who can't go for a sociable drink together. Idyllic stuff.

You have a very strange view of the countryside.

As for suicide, according to books like this rates are highest in towns like Midleton (which is a town, by the way. "Countryside" is a word too often bandied around by ignorant Dubliners as some sort of blanket term for everything outside the Pale), rather than in the countryside proper.

I'd be far more worried about the prospect of urban decay, crime, alcoholism and feral youth culture if I were you, though your concern is touching.