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Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)
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Look, I've argued both ways on this thread, but there's absolutely no grounds for opening a line for a very small number of freight trains, which can take a different route anyway. It simply doesn't make economic sense.
To be honest, I'm sad that the section between Ennis and Galway wasn't built on a new alignment. Would have made it a much more attractive form of travel.
Exactly. I have also argued both ways and I can't agree more re alignment and that only gets worse north of Tuam... I can't see why any (non-local or non-historic) railway advocate would look for the old alignment to be used.Even if there was a network of Greenways in Ireland people from here will still look to go abroad for cycling hoildays. Anyway most people families particularly don't look to go cycling they are no where near as popular as sun holidays, presently they are a niche market.end of the road wrote: »while traffic may have increased slightly, one can still have the responsibility to work around it and be safe. local roads are as safe in 2018 as 1988 if you are careful. if you have your headphones in or are yapping away well then you aren't concentrating to the full IMO. when we have our public transport system up to scratch which would benefit a lot more people, then we can think about greenways in the west for a minority activity.
I'm sure I'll be accused of bias for this but I've also corrected people for nonsense about railways...
This isn't exact, but it's far more than the two of you are offering... let's look at some facts...- According to pro-Western Railway Corridor sources (source), Phase one had 102,000 passenger trips in the whole of 2015 (this is up from previous years). It's about 60km long.
- That's about 1,700 persons per km for the railway for the full year.
- Waterford County Council estimates that the Waterford Greenway had 247,545 trips in less than 9 months (very end of March to the start of December). It's 45km long.
- That's about 5,501 persons per km for Waterford Greenway for just 9 months.
- Expanded using a simple average that's 7,335 per month -- but...
- ...you could claim that this excludes down months of December and January but I've heard of high local and returning resident usage in December and at least some of February and all of March would be higher usage than October. Nevertheless, to be fair, let's cut off a bit
- 4,950 per km under 9 months, but even if we cut the monthly average to 1/4 it's 5,362 per km for the full year.
- The Great Western Greenway had 145,000 visitors in year one and this increased to 265,000 in year two in 2014 [also: so, we should expect the Waterford Greenway to increase after year one]. It's 42km.
- That's about 3,452 persons per km in year one and 6,309 persons per km for the Great Western Greenway for the full year.
That's 5,362 (first year) to 6,309 (second year) persons per km for the greenways vs 5,501 persons per km for the reopened section of the Western Railway Corridor.
If greenways are a niche, what's the open section of the Western Railway Corridor? A very expensive niche on wheels?
While you could say that a greenway on the Western Railway Corridor might not be as popular as the above two, you could say the same thing about the Western Railway Corridor between two cities vs the Western Railway Corridor between one city and a large town (with very little besides one mid-sized commuter town close to Galway, where the railway could be opened to it without the rest of the route).
You could say the network of the Western Railway Corridor isn't finished, but the same can be said of greenways -- they are planned to be much larger networks.
The greenway would also has massively lower running costs and health benefits far exceeding public transport.
A greenway doesn't stop the railway the Western Railway Corridor alignment north of Tuam has one of the widest alignments I've seen on a single track railway in Ireland, and, north of Tuam / Claremorris, it's not the best alignment for a modern railway.Even if there was a network of Greenways in Ireland people from here will still look to go abroad for cycling hoildays. Anyway most people families particularly don't look to go cycling they are no where near as popular as sun holidays, presently they are a niche market.
You're showing here that your posts lack basic knowledge of greenways -- people on "cycling holidays" are just one of many fraction of users of greenway.
Not only to you have local users, but most people visiting an area who end up cycling on a greenway are doing so as just part of their visit -- the greenway might be the activity for one day and then there might be another the next (ie visiting tourist attractions, walking, swimming, fishing, golfing, etc).end of the road wrote: »when we have our public transport system up to scratch which would benefit a lot more people, then we can think about greenways in the west for a minority activity.
A few points to this:- as outlined above, if greenways are a "minority activity", god help railways. From a strong supporter of both railways and greenways, I can only see your blinded view as self-defeating.
- if a government was really going to pump enough money into the Western Railway Corridor to make it would while, they likely would not follow the old route alignment. North of Claremorris it makes zero sense to follow the old route alignment.
- cycling use is one of the most untapped potentials for rail in Ireland -- as the Netherlands (where 40%+ of rail passengers arrive by bicycle daily) cycling can far extend the reach and attractiveness of railway stations in both cities and towns.
- having a "public transport system up to scratch" does not mean that you can't also have a network of greenway / national walking and cycling network.
- rail use (tram and heavy rail combined even) in Dublin City has fewer daily commuters than the numbers who use bicycles.... and that's when at least a few railway lines are continuous across the city but there's not a single continuous cycle route -- wait for the network effect when a few cycle routes are completed to be continuous. The same applies to greenway -- the network effect will grow their usage.
But, hey, let's not let facts get in the way.end of the road wrote: »children cycling to school is very very unlikely to be a common occurrence again, no matter how many greenways are built. a combination of our litigation culture and the "everyone's a predator" brigade have helped insure it.
And, yet, I've seen local children cycling on their own on rural sections of the Great Western Greenway and more children cycle to my old primary school in Mayo more than when I went there and the Green Schools programme is doing loads of work in this area.Hugh Jampton wrote: »46 cycling deaths 1990,17 deaths 2017.
Link - http://irishcycle.com/collisions/
Of course this should be zero but it is not accurate to say that the roads are more dangerous than ever for cyclists.
The numbers of cyclists have fallen dramatically since the late 80s / start of the 90s as car ownership rocketed.
That's why there was a drop in deaths between the 90s and now and it means per km traveled, the 80s were likely safer.Yep, there are separate urban and rural standards.
No, they only had so much money and the surface will be upgraded eventually.0 -
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