Green party transport policy demands

crocro

The Irish times has printed some of the contents of the greens initial demands in their negotiations with Fianna Fáil.

Irish Times wrote:

Transport policy is another key area for the Greens and the party wants to see a reversal of the current ratio of investment in public transport by comparison with roads, with 94 road projects at the design or earlier stages being scrapped. The Atlantic road corridor and the eastern bypass plans would be dropped, while the western rail project would be extended.

uh. oh. I don't think the WRC is a very green project as it involves driving empty trains up and down through open countryside. If anything the atlantic road corridor is more green as it would allow for buses.

No mention of the metro or interconnector. boo hiss

SeanW

:mad: I'm sorry, do any of these poncy bastards in the Green party live in the same country as me? Aside from the Major Interurbans & Dublin county, Ireland's road network is still a 3rd world shambles, with most of them the descendents of animal tracks first charted in the Middle Ages or thereabouts, which is why they're so bendy and (to a lesser extent) narrow.

No doubt many of these 94 projects include desperately needed town bypasses, of which my town Longford has one in design stage (that was "rescheduled" last year. Doubtlessly the list also includes road between places where railway transport is nonexistant and not planned to be provided, such as between smaller towns.

But, hey, if FF let's the Greens sabotage our road network, the Greens will let FF mortgage our country and squander the wealth of generations with the damn NAMA plan to give money to the banks and politically connected property developers :mad:

Fasten your seat belt fellow boardsies, it's going to be a rough ride. All downhill.

bmaxi

Shoddy journalism on the part of the Irish Times, mentioning the Greens and policy in one sentence.

Tipsy Mac

The Greens got 2.3% of first preference votes at the local elections, I really don't see how they should be making any decisions impacting on the rest of us :rolleyes:

serfboard

This BS is the reason FF wouldn't give Transport to the Greens. FF haven't been in power for the last 20 years (and for most of the state's history) by being totally oblivious to what people want.

P.S. Not a FF supporter, BTW.

Bards

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

The Greens got 2.3% of first preference votes at the local elections, I really don't see how they should be making any decisions impacting on the rest of us :rolleyes:

They are the tail that wags the dog

Judgement Day

Given that less than 42% voted for FF in the 2007 election surely they have no right to make decisions for us either. I knowm, lets have a general election and replace the jaded tossers with some fresh tossers!

invincibleirish

Personally my biggest disappointment with the Greens is that they did not insist on Public Transport being prioritised ahead of roads spending in the 2007 PFG.

Gombeen Ireland rathers high cost & lightly used bypasses and upgrades of roads by every two bit town above spending money on upgrading public transport in the urban areas.

Victor

serfboard wrote: »

This BS is the reason FF wouldn't give Transport to the Greens. FF haven't been in power for the last 20 years (and for most of the state's history) by being totally oblivious to what people want.

P.S. Not a FF supporter, BTW.

Um, FF have only beeen in government for 12 years.

corktina

it just FEELS like 20 years

crocro

invincibleirish wrote: »

Personally my biggest disappointment with the Greens is that they did not insist on Public Transport being prioritised ahead of roads spending in the 2007 PFG.

By mid 2007 most sections of the interurbans were either built or contracted to be built, it would not have made sense to demand that any remaining gaps be abandoned.

I am disappointed that they are not seeking that the two major transport 21 rail projects be signed off- MN and IC. Also what about the DTA or NTA? What about decommissioning CIE and contracting its operations to more effective companies?

DWCommuter

crocro wrote: »

I am disappointed that they are not seeking that the two major transport 21 rail projects be signed off- MN and IC. Also what about the DTA or NTA? What about decommissioning CIE and contracting its operations to more effective companies?

LOL!:D

This is the sh1t they know is impossible.

Judgement Day

Derek didn't the Yanks invent a neutron bomb that only wiped out people and left infrastructure intact? Could it be refined to take out everybody in CIE/IE above the rank of depotman?

IIMII

The Green Party is the best! I remember John Gormley and Trevor Sargent promised they would deliver the railway to Navan, and offered me a pint. They also praised the work of the Dublin Meath Growers.

Ah, they moved on to become career politico's so quickly and so naturally. I also remember the day just weeks after they went into government that Trevor Sargent introduced himself to my wife as Minister Trevor Sargent (nothing Junior about it), as if he were landed gentry.

These guys were full of crap, and to be honest will be no loss when they fade into the same oblivion that the PDs faded into. To think I thought they might be a breath of fresh air to government.

It's a pity that the likes of Brian Flanagan and Fergal O'Byrne have seen years of hard work left hang out to dry by them.

thebman

lol yeah this and electric cars that can get you half way across the country so you have to stay over in a hotel to get back to Galway from Dublin from now on while the car charges.

Either that or own a car for commuting to work and one for going back home at weekends. The cost of building and shipping two cars for each person is economical of course.

Although you could try to get public transport to see the auld fella at the weekend but then someone will have to collect you on the far side which involves driving the 8 miles to whereever the bus/train might take you.

Either that or the greens just think you should never see your friends/family again. Anyway I'm sure they have it all worked out. Just don't forget to charge the car before you go to bed at night because otherwise you won't be getting to work the next morning.

dereko1969

you're basing all of this on 2 lines in an Irish Times piece, nothing has come out yet of any detail at all that's in the Green Partys submission to FF. There's no need to refer to Metro North or the Dart Underground as they're already in the Programme for Government.

invincibleirish

crocro wrote: »

By mid 2007 most sections of the interurbans were either built or contracted to be built, it would not have made sense to demand that any remaining gaps be abandoned.

It might have been too late for the Greens to change/revoke the contracts but it wasn't too late to demand a paradigm shift in Government policy to being explicitly pro public transport to balance this out.

Even two years and a global financial crisis later there is still a bunch of PPPs and a few rogue projects on the NRAs projects list which have or will probably get funding, meanwhile the proposals are there to cut subsidies to bus & rail to ribbons. It should be the other way around, even better, make schemes like the M9 pay for themselves by putting tolls on the route and divert money saved into sustainable public transport, ditto congestion charging.


The make up of the Dail has changed in the previous 2 years, the Greens now have more leverage in their dealings with their coalition partners so when they do agree on a new version of a PFG hopefully it will have more substance to it it.

thebman

dereko1969 wrote: »

you're basing all of this on 2 lines in an Irish Times piece, nothing has come out yet of any detail at all that's in the Green Partys submission to FF. There's no need to refer to Metro North or the Dart Underground as they're already in the Programme for Government.

Based what I wrote on what the green party have been say they want for the past couple of years anyway.

To the above poster. Tolls aren't good, they slow movement.

People need to move into the real world where there are knock on consequences to their actions and think things out more. The country needs better public transport I agree whole heartedly with that but not at the expense of roads which will always be the primary carrier in this country becaues of the distribution of the population and in Dublin, the lack of space to expand the existing network making all work extremely costly.

serfboard

Victor wrote: »

Um, FF have only beeen in government for 12 years.

Bar the "temporary little arrangement" that was John Bruton's government from Nov 92 to Dec 94 FF have effectively been in government since 1987. 22 - 2 = 20.

The 2 years of the rainbow wasn't anything like enough time to really consider them as having been in power.