Cork Area Commuter Rail (CACR)

Only because it's being funded by the EU COVID Recovery and Resilience Facility which has a deadline on it. If this was a normal government funded project it would still be stuck at the drawing board. Even at that the bureaucracy in Ireland is doing its best to slow this down. The railway order for the dual tracking from Glounthaune to Midleton element is stuck in ABP since last November. It's such a relatively quick win but the red tape is extensive in Ireland.

At least there are signs.

Most bus stops in Limerick City have no markings to indicate their existence.

Can you elaborate on "governance and legal problems"? I'm not absolving them of all blame, but the fact is that various governments have loaded more and more work onto ABP without funding it to hire enough staff to deal with that extra workload.

Going against the inspector's report is a normal part of how ABP works - it should not be universal but it should not be rare either. The inspector gathers evidence about a particular application, listens to submissions and makes a recommendation, but it is the Board that ultimately decides whether to approve an application. The inspector confines themself to one project, but the board considers that project in the context of other projects.

Judicial reviews are a direct consequence of under-resourcing. JRs are objections based on process, not findings - you can only win on the basis of "ABP did not follow this legally-required process", and when you haven't got enough staff on hand to deal with the workload, there will be oversights and omissions, and that leaves the door open for JRs - JRs are usually pretty quick in terms of court time, but they get dragged out by an under-resourced Courts system. The length of time that it takes APB to handle a planning application also allows the legal framework to change during the evaluation process. Again, with adequate resourcing, the jobs would get done quick enough that this would hardly ever happen.

Yes, it's maddening, and a big part of it is that "Minister approves funding for 100 more public servants" is seen as a negative, while "Minister approves funding for new rail project" is positive. Thing is, without the first, we can't get the second. Planning for big schemes should take 6-9 months - you won't get quicker given that people have a right to know what's being planned and to make observations - but there just aren't enough inspectors and general staff to deal with the number of schemes, so everything gets backlogged.

There are changes to the planning process coming with new legislation that will cut down on the number of spurious objections and make it harder to bring JRs, but the planning system still needs to be properly resourced or the delays will continue.

It's sort-of independent. The signalling work will be for a dual-track railway, but in theory they could just tell it it to "close" the sections of track that don't actually exist yet, and route trains over the existing single-track way. However, the dual-tracking work is also out for tender as I understand it.

Interestingly, the Strategic Rail Review document listed the Cork suburban network as a railway with "electrification already planned". The news report linked on previous page said that services would treble from the current one train per 15 minutes level, and I don't see how they're going to get to twelve trains per hour reliably without electrification... does anyone have any details?

The new signalling will be digital, they can add more physical signals later and program in the new double-tracked section fairly easily.

The plan is 10 minute frequency on each line which would be a train every 5 minutes west of Glountaune.

So they plan to build a station in the middle of an empty field in Monard?

This one is for a new town planned by the County Council. It will have no cars, just like Ballinglanna and Waterrock (I hope you can feel the sarcasm in my post!)

Here's a nice post about Monard. Conceptually it's not terrible, but realistically each and every one of these people will be a commuter. There's almost nowhere local for them to work. It's Carrigaline or Ballincollig with a train station basically.

Blackpool and Blarney are to go to planning within 12 months

Blackpool had planning years ago and nothing happened. Hope it happens but as I said, I wouldn't be holding my breath.

That's literally what I had in mind. A footpath would do a lot at each of Carrigaloe or Rushbrooke. You wouldn't even need to move the stations! I'm not at all against a new station, but there's very little needed to make the existing ones work a lot better.

With more investment at Rushbrooke you could allow one of the usual passenger bridges (with lifts) to connect across the ravine you drew in your picture, making the climb/descent even more comfortable.

Here's the Irish Rail PR: https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/signalling-contract-signed-for-transformative-incr

According the Bord Pleanála website, the Railway Order Application for the dual tracking project hasn't been approved yet. The decision is apparently "Requires Further Consideration" which, to me any, sounds a bit oxymoronic. Surely a decision of "we haven't decided yet" isn't actually a decision.

https://www.pleanala.ie/en-ie/case/315087