Mullingar - Athlone Greenway progress?

Explosive_Cornflake

tigerboon wrote: »

You wouldn't happen to know if there is dedicated parking at the start point in Mullingar. I'm not really local so if I was to bring the kids on it I would have to drive to an access point. If not, is the best thing to park in the town (Dunnes Stores maybe) and access via the canal route?

The guys in Outdoor escape are quite close, talk to them. Can probably park there. 044 9335351

nice_guy80

Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »

The guys in Outdoor escape are quite close, talk to them. Can probably park there. 044 9335351

was going to suggest that
there are empty units went plenty of spaces beside them

Wichita Lineman

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

Does anyone know if Kev's in Moate hire out bikes?

I think there is a bike hire shop open (opening) in Moate alright, a couple of doors up from Supervalu.

Sunny Dayz

Don't think it's open yet... hubbie was hoping to cycle with us this weekend on it. He's looking at a few second hand bikes for purchase.

Subcomandante Marcos

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

Don't think it's open yet... hubbie was hoping to cycle with us this weekend on it. He's looking at a few second hand bikes for purchase.

There's some guy in Athlone selling off a few decent hybrids on adverts.ie for really good prices.

Sunny Dayz

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

There's some guy in Athlone selling off a few decent hybrids on adverts.ie for really good prices.

Cheers! He's going to look at a bike this evening so if that falls through I'll get him to look on adverts tonight.

Donie75

DB Cycles were putting adverting boards on the fence of the Spar in Garrycastle the other day. They are offering a full range of bikes for hire.
I think Buckley Cycles hire bikes too.

tigerboon

I was on this this morning and have to say it's an excellent piece of infrastructure. Lots of people cycling, walking and jogging. There's a couple of things I was wondering about;

• Are there going to be information signs? (next town xkm, pointers to town village centres, places of interest).
• It still has an unfinished look about it. Are the edges and the gap to the rail lines going to be topsoiled and seeded? There are for some stretches.
• There's a section around Mount Temple not surfaced. maybe this section was newly built up and it's a settlement thing.
• A water refill point (i.e. a tap) halfway would be a good idea
• As it's mostly recreational cyclists this is aimed at (and people of all ages were using it) a few benches wouldn't go astray, even every 5km

The above things would encourage people to spend a day on it rather than a quick spin up and down and spend a bit of cash in the localities...which surely was the point of it in the first place

flazio

Well what localities are there to spend money in anyway? Moate is too near Athlone, there's no exit point in Streamstown and no other village on the line before Mullingar.

Sunny Dayz

Myself and the young lad went on the cycle track from Moate to Athlone and back. Long time since I've been on a bike but we enjoyed it. It's well done, I'd imagine the view would get boring after a few trips on it. The Tarmac surface was good, gravel bit was a bit tougher.
Would have liked km markers along the route just to know how we were getting along. Also maybe a little bench here and there to sit on for a drink or a packed lunch, especially if you have a child or are just very leisurely!
Thanks to the few "proper" cyclists who gave us a few tips as they passed us by

kildarecommuter

There were railway mileposts marking every quarter mile but they all more or less disappeared during the greenway construction

Salmon

kildarecommuter wrote: »

There were railway mileposts marking every quarter mile but they all more or less disappeared during the greenway construction

The plan is to place some signs on the railway sleepers that are placed before all the farmers crossing points. I'm guessing these will give info like which townsland you are in a well as distances to each town! Also I've heard there is a piece of land bought near castletown station which will be developed as a car park. Might be handy for some!

Saint_Mel

Just on the surface, talking to a couple of people over the weekend and 4 of the 5 people I know who have cycled it have got punctures. (As have I, although I only noticed when I went to get the bike out yesterday)

Have many others or do I have a particularly unlucky group of friends

michaelm

Hoping to do this in the next few days - not from the area though. Will be starting from Athlone - where do I go to start the route? Any pointers appreciated.

flazio

michaelm wrote: »

Hoping to do this in the next few days - not from the area though. Will be starting from Athlone - where do I go to start the route? Any pointers appreciated.

Exit 9 off the bypass, turn left if coming from the westbound carriageway or right if coming from eastbound, ahead of you will be a new roundabout, the entrance to the green way is in front of the Spar just off the roundabout . Parking for the greenway is accessed by taking the second exit off the roundabout, then the second exit off the next roundabout, then after a sharp left turning right over the old railway bridge.

roosterman71

Here are the GPS coordinates of the entrance at Athlone (accurate to a few feet!!)
53.423425, -7.901082

TimHorton

Idiots in the west blocking progress once again

"Plans for section of cycle route put on hold following objections"

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1030/738407-greenway-cycle-route/

I said

TimHorton wrote: »

Idiots in the west blocking progress once again

"Plans for section of cycle route put on hold following objections"

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1030/738407-greenway-cycle-route/

So a few people who may have quiet reasonable objections are called idiots by you that's a real good argument on your behalf.
Do you live around that area?Do you know the exact route it's taking?

bovis

Very disappointing for the whole cross Ireland route. But I think it may be great for the Westmeath / Longford area as a cycling destination. There is amazing interest in the excellebt old rail trail by westmeath coco. Longford CoCo apparently have plans to extend the royal canal greenway all the way to the Shannon at Clondra and also are about to put signage up on a fantastic lake side trail along the shores of lough ree back into Athlone. With Minister O'Donahue allocating immediate funds for the Kildare /Meath end of the royal canal you will see hoards of cyclists arriving into the region and a multi day cycle loop of the royal/lough ree and old rail trail will be very appealing.

Furthermore, Longford CoCo are looking at how they can link to the Great Western Greenway in Mayo via Roscommon. This has potential to cross the proposed Sligo athenry greenway near Charlestown.

So I would not be too concerned. My feeling is that there will be a coast to coast greenway but maybe not the one originally planned. The Galway farmers will be begging for the route in future years and I hope the minister remembers their opposition.

TimHorton wrote: »

Idiots in the west blocking progress once again

"Plans for section of cycle route put on hold following objections"

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1030/738407-greenway-cycle-route/

Redbishop

bovis wrote: »

Very disappointing for the whole cross Ireland route. But I think it may be great for the Westmeath / Longford area as a cycling destination. There is amazing inyetest in tgr excellebt trail by wetsmeath coco. Longford CoCo apparently have plans to extend the royal canal greenway all the way to the Shannon at Clondra and also are about to put signage up on a fantastic lake side trail along the shores of lough ree back into Athlone. With Minister O'Donahue allocating immediate funds for the Kildare /Meath end of the royal canal you will see hoards of cyclists arriving into the region and a multi day cycle loop of the royal/lough ree and old rail trail will be very appealing.

Furthermore, Longford CoCo are looking at how they can link to the Great Western Greenway in Mayo via Roscommon. This has potential to cross the proposed Sligo athenry greenway near Charlestown.

So I would not be too concerned. My feeling ia that there will be a coast to coast greenway but maybe not the one originally planned. The Galway farmers will be begging for the route in future years and I hope the minister remembers their opposition.

The Galway farmers will never give a s***e about it one way or another tbh.
I can see their point in some respects, like maybe farms split down the middle and access to their own land for moving livestock with ease.
Also from a security pov, another escape route for undesirables, probably an unpatrolled one at that.
There are a good many things to be addressed.

nice_guy80

TimHorton wrote: »

Idiots in the west blocking progress once again

"Plans for section of cycle route put on hold following objections"

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1030/738407-greenway-cycle-route/

well, if somebody tried to run a cycleway through your field with minimal consultation, you'd be annoyed!

Rasmus

Does anyone know how this affects the construction between Garrycastle onward through Athlone town?

Redbishop

Rasmus wrote: »

Does anyone know how this affects the construction between Garrycastle onward through Athlone town?

As far as I know it doesn't affect anything east of Athlone.
Kildare and Meath are going to benefit from the money meant for the Galway part of the project now it seems.

mr spuckler

Rasmus wrote: »

Does anyone know how this affects the construction between Garrycastle onward through Athlone town?

there's currently no finalised plan for bringing the cycleway the whole way into the town. they've put a load of options on the table, including building a new bridge over the shannon, running it outside the existing town bridge or railway bridge etc but none have ever been approved. the challenge they have is trying to keep it away from busy narrow streets, which is really all that Athlone has!

amazingly enough i remember reading in the westmeath independent a couple of years ago that they were looking at building a tunnel to accommodate it through the town. unfortunately i can't find any record of that so hope i'm not just losing it!

you'd have thought that the obvious option at this stage would be to run it in to the white gates at the ballymahon road as it will surely have to go that far either way but that doesn't seem to be the plan right now

nice_guy80

mr spuckler wrote: »

there's currently no finalised plan for bringing the cycleway the whole way into the town. they've put a load of options on the table, including building a new bridge over the shannon, running it outside the existing town bridge or railway bridge etc but none have ever been approved. the challenge they have is trying to keep it away from busy narrow streets, which is really all that Athlone has!

amazingly enough i remember reading in the westmeath independent a couple of years ago that they were looking at building a tunnel to accommodate it through the town. unfortunately i can't find any record of that so hope i'm not just losing it!

you'd have thought that the obvious option at this stage would be to run it in to the white gates at the ballymahon road as it will surely have to go that far either way but that doesn't seem to be the plan right now

would make more sense to put it through the town, put cycle/pedestrian bridge alongside the current bridge at the castle, run it down towards Clonown

Rasmus

mr spuckler wrote: »

there's currently no finalised plan for bringing the cycleway the whole way into the town. they've put a load of options on the table, including building a new bridge over the shannon, running it outside the existing town bridge or railway bridge etc but none have ever been approved. the challenge they have is trying to keep it away from busy narrow streets, which is really all that Athlone has!

amazingly enough i remember reading in the westmeath independent a couple of years ago that they were looking at building a tunnel to accommodate it through the town. unfortunately i can't find any record of that so hope i'm not just losing it!

you'd have thought that the obvious option at this stage would be to run it in to the white gates at the ballymahon road as it will surely have to go that far either way but that doesn't seem to be the plan right now

That's a shame, I thought they were going to run it over the Ballymahon Road and behind the schools/sports centre.

whyulittle

It is to come into town as far as Dunnes/Hospital along the old rail line.

The third section is from Garrycastle to the Marina Building Athlone, 3.3km, which is currently subject to Part VIII Planning Process. This section also follows the disused railway line from Garrycastle to Montree before passing under the Railway line and along the perimeter of St Vincents Hosiptal onto the Marina. - Planning Department

The forth section isto the west of the Marina Building, a route is currently being developed to link this project across the River Shannon to Athlone Castle were a new cyclehub is proposed to be developed. That section will be the subject of an EIS, which will be published by the end of 2015.

http://www.westmeathcoco.ie/en/ourservices/tourismlibraryartsrecreation/greenway/galwaytodublincycleway/
http://www.westmeathcoco.ie/en/ourservices/planning/itemsonpublicdisplay/garrycastletoathlonecycleway/

roosterman71

Council are going to erect some signs along the route soon. Not ones for business, but ones depicting towns and some services available there

Signage to be erected on Greenway within the next two weeks

I have to say this pleases me. Last thing you want coming up to exits on it is a clatter of signs advertising all and sundry in the nearby locality

guylikeme

whyulittle wrote: »

It is to come into town as far as Dunnes/Hospital along the old rail line.



http://www.westmeathcoco.ie/en/ourservices/tourismlibraryartsrecreation/greenway/galwaytodublincycleway/
http://www.westmeathcoco.ie/en/ourservices/planning/itemsonpublicdisplay/garrycastletoathlonecycleway/

I guess a ramp down to the main road there would allow people to get town bridge via abbey road and northeast st. Longer term a ramp to a future bridge under railway (sort of like derry) would be cool

CapnHex

I cycled this in full on Monday - Mullingar to Athlone return. The surface is amazingly smooth tarmac (except a section a few kilometers from Athlone that is compacted gravel). There are only a few roads intersecting the old rail trail, and I only had to stop completely at one to allow a car to pass. So basically 40kms of uninterrupted cycling; no cars, buses, trucks, fumes, potholes, drains, shores (some manhole covers, but well fitted). A slight downside - it is very flat and very straight, and the scenery doesn't change much along the route - but a minor issue for such carefree cycling. Good size shop at Garrycastle (Athlone) with deli, coffee and refreshments to replenish food and drink. I imagine in the summer, Moate station platform might have a few pop-up stalls as this is 12kms from Athlone end, so a nice family spin. I'll do this again during the summer. A great day out for some hassle free cycling.