Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)

Del.Monte

How will intending visitors from Galway reach the Kiltimagh Velorail if the line is not reinstated - walk?

Del.Monte

Del.Monte wrote: »

How will intending visitors from Galway reach the Kiltimagh Velorail if the line is not reinstated - walk?

The same way they reach it now

eastwest

Del.Monte wrote: »

How will intending visitors from Galway reach the Kiltimagh Velorail if the line is not reinstated - walk?

Downhill skiing from knock airport, I believe that's the plan.
If there is a plan....

Hugh Jampton

Deleted User wrote: »

The same way they reach it now

By the power of thought. If a bicycle is power, imagine how a four wheeled one on rails amplifies the awesomeness.

Muckyboots

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

By the power of thought. If a bicycle is power, imagine how a four wheeled one on rails amplifies the awesomeness.

"power of thought " are the key words in this statement. I'm sorry but I just can't get the thought of Laurel and Hardy out of my head every time velorail is mentioned.

eastwest

Muckyboots wrote: »

"power of thought " are the key words in this statement. I'm sorry but I just can't get the thought of Laurel and Hardy out of my head every time velorail is mentioned.

Plus the Benny Hill music!

what_traffic

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

What’s the stats for commuting from Tuam to Galway by bicycle?

How about just focusing on stats for people who could start commuting by bike within Tuam and its hinterland itself if the greenway was available?

monument

If this sniping, one-word replies, joke replies, etc keeps up I’m just going to ban all involved, including the above posts with such.

— moderator

eastwest

what_traffic wrote: »

How about just focusing on stats for people who could start commuting by bike within Tuam and its hinterland itself if the greenway was available?

The greenway will pass close to all the schools in Tuam, which is bound to increase the numbers commuting by bike. Westport is the only town in Ireland that hits the European average for school commuting by bike, not unrelated to the greenway that runs through the town.

what_traffic

eastwest wrote: »

The greenway will pass close to all the schools in Tuam, which is bound to increase the numbers commuting by bike.

+ many students will probably walk on the Tuam Greenway if distance is under 2km.

Hugh Jampton

Soon, if the planning comes through for this scheme, there will be more fun and games getting to and from Galway from Tuam..

http://connachttribune.ie/decision-due-in-april-on-major-tuam-housing-development/

Muckyboots

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

Soon, if the planning comes through for this scheme, there will be more fun and games getting to and from Galway from Tuam..

http://connachttribune.ie/decision-due-in-april-on-major-tuam-housing-development/

The Greenway will run adjacent to this new estate and will offer safe walking and cycling routes to schools. Burkes will put on an extra few buses for Galway commuters.

Hugh Jampton

Muckyboots wrote: »

The Greenway will run adjacent to this new estate and will offer safe walking and cycling routes to schools. Burkes will put on an extra few buses for Galway commuters.

Let’s hope they aren’t in a hurry going to and from work.

eastwest

Muckyboots wrote: »

The Greenway will run adjacent to this new estate and will offer safe walking and cycling routes to schools. Burkes will put on an extra few buses for Galway commuters.

Buses that go from where they live to where they work, a much faster option than driving to a station to take a slow roundabout rail journey to where they can then take a bus to work.

Muckyboots

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

Let’s hope they aren’t in a hurry going to and from work.

Would you like to plot a sample door to door journey for any Tuam suburban resident to, let's say Medtronic or Boston Scientific, that would include an element of rail on a newly opened WRC? I can do it for you if you like but you know I'll be biased, so have a go yourself and feel free to include your own biases.

end of the road

Muckyboots wrote: »

The Greenway will run adjacent to this new estate and will offer safe walking and cycling routes to schools. Burkes will put on an extra few buses for Galway commuters.

neither of those are likely to attract great usage. bus transport is just not viable as the main form of transport for our cities, dublin is proof of this. cycling will likely remain in the minority in terms of public transport usage. Burkes busses and greenways are just a paper over the cracks solution, they need to be part of the solution rather then the solution. the solution is rail-based, whether be light rail or a mix of heavy and light rail. road as the main solution for galway doesn't look to be working and i can't imagine it ever will.

eastwest wrote: »

Buses that go from where they live to where they work, a much faster option than driving to a station to take a slow roundabout rail journey to where they can then take a bus to work.

i think that is more wishful thinking rather then actual reality, given the congestion in galway. even with painted bus lanes, bus could never match the convenience of the car.

marno21

end of the road wrote: »

neither of those are likely to attract great usage. bus transport is just not viable as the main form of transport for our cities, dublin is proof of this. cycling will likely remain in the minority in terms of public transport usage. Burkes busses and greenways are just a paper over the cracks solution, they need to be part of the solution rather then the solution. the solution is rail-based, whether be light rail or a mix of heavy and light rail. road as the main solution for galway doesn't look to be working and i can't imagine it ever will.



i think that is more wishful thinking rather then actual reality, given the congestion in galway. even with painted bus lanes, bus could never match the convenience of the car.

If this is the case why isn't everyone in Gort, Craughwell and Ardrahan taking the train? Phase 1 was supposed to back up your statements above and it's failed to even remotely make an impact on N18 traffic

eastwest

In Dublin, a much bigger city than Galway, most commuter journeys are by bus. In addition, more commuters travel by bike than on luas.
Taking a slow, roundabout train from Tuam to Ceannt and then taking a bus back out towards Tuam to where a lot of the jobs are located is just plain daft.

Hugh Jampton

eastwest wrote: »

In Dublin, a much bigger city than Galway, most commuter journeys are by bus. In addition, more commuters travel by bike than on luas.
Taking a slow, roundabout train from Tuam to Ceannt and then taking a bus back out towards Tuam to where a lot of the jobs are located is just plain daft.

Well, the sprawl isn’t doing Galway’s reputation as a place to do business any good. Using the usual solution of more tarmac to solve the problem will be throwing petrol on the flames.

At least, when this thread finally becomes history it can’t be said that no one shouted stop.

http://www.thejournal.ie/galway-bad-traffic-3-3727711-Dec2017/

Stephen15

eastwest wrote: »

In Dublin, a much bigger city than Galway, most commuter journeys are by bus. In addition, more commuters travel by bike than on luas.
Taking a slow, roundabout train from Tuam to Ceannt and then taking a bus back out towards Tuam to where a lot of the jobs are located is just plain daft.

The reason for that is because there are two Luas lines, one DART line and a few lower frequency commuter lines not because people prefer the bus or the bus is quicker. The Luas is a very popular for a system of only two lines.

If the train is frequent, fast, reliable and quicker than the bus most people will use it over the bus but if its poor people people will continue to use the bus. I'm not having a dig at you but a large amount of people on this thread are knocking off rail travel as a whole, if you go to other countries you will trains are the are the preferred method of transport because they are frequent, reliable, fast and cheap while fill in the gaps to areas which do not have a rail service.

The reason why rail travel has struggled in Ireland over the last 50 or so years is because the DoT, CIE and latter IE and the NTA have neglected it as a viable means of transport they're the ones to blame not rail as a method of transport. Rail has undergone a revival worldwide over the last 50 years the UK for example is now carrying record passengers, there are many large rail infrastructure now happening across the world such the new Brenner Pass tunnel.

Rail is actually thriving not declining now across the world and Ireland could also see this if the NTA, IE, DoT and politicians got their act together and did things to improve rail rather make it worse.

Wagon360

Stephen15 wrote: »

The reason for that is because there are two Luas lines, one DART line and a few lower frequency commuter lines not because people prefer the bus or the bus is quicker. The Luas is a very popular for a system of only two lines.

If the train is frequent, fast, reliable and quicker than the bus most people will use it over the bus but if its poor people people will continue to use the bus. I'm not having a dig at you but a large amount of people on this thread are knocking off rail travel as a whole, if you go to other countries you will trains are the are the preferred method of transport because they are frequent, reliable, fast and cheap while fill in the gaps to areas which do not have a rail service.

The reason why rail travel has struggled in Ireland over the last 50 or so years is because the DoT, CIE and latter IE and the NTA have neglected it as a viable means of transport they're the ones to blame not rail as a method of transport. Rail has undergone a revival worldwide over the last 50 years the UK for example is now carrying record passengers, there are many large rail infrastructure now happening across the world such the new Brenner Pass tunnel.

Rail is actually thriving not declining now across the world and Ireland could also see this if the NTA, IE, DoT and politicians got their act together and did things to improve rail rather make it worse.

I could not have put this better myself. And if we are going to spend a few billion on carbon fines wouldn’t it be better to spend that money on public transport? We need to cop ourselves on pretty quick and not squander what little Rail we have so we can make provision for the future.

eastwest

Stephen15 wrote: »

The reason for that is because there are two Luas lines, one DART line and a few lower frequency commuter lines not because people prefer the bus or the bus is quicker. The Luas is a very popular for a system of only two lines.

If the train is frequent, fast, reliable and quicker than the bus most people will use it over the bus but if its poor people people will continue to use the bus. I'm not having a dig at you but a large amount of people on this thread are knocking off rail travel as a whole, if you go to other countries you will trains are the are the preferred method of transport because they are frequent, reliable, fast and cheap while fill in the gaps to areas which do not have a rail service.

The reason why rail travel has struggled in Ireland over the last 50 or so years is because the DoT, CIE and latter IE and the NTA have neglected it as a viable means of transport they're the ones to blame not rail as a method of transport. Rail has undergone a revival worldwide over the last 50 years the UK for example is now carrying record passengers, there are many large rail infrastructure now happening across the world such the new Brenner Pass tunnel.

Rail is actually thriving not declining now across the world and Ireland could also see this if the NTA, IE, DoT and politicians got their act together and did things to improve rail rather make it worse.

I agree that rail has been badly managed in the past, and Indeed it suffers badly from a restrictive unionised environment still. However it must be recognised that rail only works well where large numbers of people have to be moved on relatively long distances. The scattered nature of the thinly-spread population along the wrc doesn't lend itself to rail travel.
Many posters on this thread have pretty much conceded this to be the case north of Tuam, but honestly the notion of a Tuam Galway rail commuter route via athenry is clutching at straws.

Losty Dublin

eastwest wrote: »

The greenway will pass close to all the schools in Tuam, which is bound to increase the numbers commuting by bike. Westport is the only town in Ireland that hits the European average for school commuting by bike, not unrelated to the greenway that runs through the town.

Sorry to burst your bubble here but you will find that the disgustingly heavy rush hour traffic in Westport has more to do with this than the presence of it's two Greenways.

Hugh Jampton

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

At least, when this thread finally becomes history

You keep going on about this. Once the thread is closed a new one is opened to continue the conversation.

Are you honestly not aware of that or are you just speaking aloud an internal prayer that this topic will die throughout the West of Ireland because of a thread closing?

Wagon360

[Deleted User] wrote: »

You keep going on about this. Once the thread is closed a new one is opened to continue the conversation.

Are you honestly not aware of that or are you just speaking aloud an internal prayer that this topic will die throughout the West of Ireland because of a thread closing?

I have no doubt the topic will not die but be aware there are more and more people in the West who do not want to see a key public transport asset squandered on a bike route when we are facing the opportunity of population expansion and a chance to put right the long decline of the West.

eastwest

Wagon360 wrote: »

I have no doubt the topic will not die but be aware there are more and more people in the West who do not want to see a key public transport asset squandered on a bike route when we are facing the opportunity of population expansion and a chance to put right the long decline of the West.

That's at odds with the facts on a number of levels.
Firstly, describing the installation of a greenway on a redundant railway alignment as 'squandering a key public transport asset' is a complete misrepresentation of the facts. There are no plans to build a railway on that route, and given the combination of demographics and the state of public finances, combined with a long queue for funds for really essential public projects, any railway on this route is decades away at best. A greenway will protect the asset in the meantime and definitively will not prevent a railway from being built.
Secondly, it is now clear that a significant majority in affected towns want the greenway built.

Hugh Jampton

eastwest wrote: »

That's at odds with the facts on a number of levels.
Firstly, describing the installation of a greenway on a redundant railway alignment as 'squandering a key public transport asset' is a complete misrepresentation of the facts. There are no plans to build a railway on that route, and given the combination of demographics and the state of public finances, combined with a long queue for funds for really essential public projects, any railway on this route is decades away at best. A greenway will protect the asset in the meantime and definitively will not prevent a railway from being built.
Secondly, it is now clear that a significant majority in affected towns want the greenway built.

All CIE has to do is what it periodically does - and has done on Tuam - Athenry- assert ownership by fencing, surveys etc. Bingo - asset protected.

Source for the Secondly, ? Noisy campaigns don't automatically equate to The Will Of The People. Also, seems to me that the big local clear up in Tuam Station some time back wasn't done purely for the craic.

monument

Wagon360 wrote: »

I have no doubt the topic will not die but be aware there are more and more people in the West who do not want to see a key public transport asset squandered on a bike route when we are facing the opportunity of population expansion and a chance to put right the long decline of the West.

I live in the west and I can assure you — people here want roads and greenways. The WRC reopening as a railway is on the minds of very few people and anybody I know who has a vague idea of it being a good idea moves away from that when you ask them about the quality of the old route or roads vs rail spending or where it would connect to in Mayo.

eastwest

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

All CIE has to do is what it periodically does - and has done on Tuam - Athenry- assert ownership by fencing, surveys etc. Bingo - asset protected.
.

That worked well in Kerry and Limerick! And on the branch line in Waterford, now lost to public ownership.

Muckyboots

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Sorry to burst your bubble here but you will find that the disgustingly heavy rush hour traffic in Westport has more to do with this than the presence of it's two Greenways.

So you are saying that if the Greenways were not there that the adults and kids would be still be cycling anyway, really?- in heavy traffic? If you are making bubble bursting claims you'll need a better point than this.