Planning permission up for greenway from Youghal to Midleton

By the time commuters from further east would get to Midleton Railway Station they have already taken the pain of Killeagh Castlemartyr and Lakeview and or the mainstreet. The same, in reverse order, would on the way home in the evening.

There is therefore little attraction to transferring to the train for the relatively easy bit of the remaining drive to or from the City

Having said that, currently the trains at commuting times are already packed with locals and busy enough outside of commuting hours.

Being a rail user, as well as a car driver, I often choose the Cork-Dublin train instead of driving. Taking the cost of fuel into consideration it's cheaper as well as being quicker, two and a half hours versus over three, no stress and good public transport options from Heuston.

They could badly do with restoring the one in tralee fo RSPI operations so they can go head first down. THo i believe they have to go tender first into cork most times because of the hill.

As you say most people want a safe place to walk, jog or cycle without the sound of traffic.

I don't think you quite understand. Go down to the Glounthaune greenway some evening and have a look: it's busy late into the night, and is absolutely not "scenic". The stretch between Bury's Bridge and Little Island is positively grim from a scenery perspective, but is busy every day.

There's massive demand. The Midleton side alone will be extremely busy. The middle stretches between Killeagh and Youghal will likely be quiet, but within 5km of Youghal again it will be busy.

Greenways are good for the "tourism" type users for sure, but local people make up a considerable amount of the end users. Maybe even the majority. Little "cafe" type industries WILL begin to appear at the trailheads which will benefit the towns and villages on the route. I've passed through a lot of East and North Cork towns over the last couple of weeks and have been surprised by the resurgence of shops and cafe's and whatnot in the likes of Ballymacoda, Castletownroche, etc: local people are spending more time near home since work from home has become an accepted norm. Now those people want (expect!) places to be safely outdoors too.

I'm planning on using the new greenway to commute to the train station in Midleton but I also hope to use an eScooter for that so banning electric bikes/scooters would be a insult to injury when I'd have much preferred the rail-line be restored in the first place. I will make the most out of having a greenway close by but I will never accept that a greenway was the better option over a functioning train line from Youghal to the city.

The debate on the scenery of the route has some merit IMO. The Dungarvan greenway is a tourist attraction as well as a local amenity. This barren stretch between Youghal and Midleton won't have that same draw. Not saying it won't be busy with locals mind you, and I too appreciate having a safe space to go for a cycle with the kids.

Great post. The last commuter train was 60 years ago, so IE has had 6 decades to look at the feasibility of this.

When is the Midleton -> Mogeely section opening?

If the Greenway didn't go ahead then the land would go back to the farmers because Irish Rail wanted it off their hands as maintaining unused rail lines and bridges cost a lot of money. Now the land is still owned by Irish Rail.

You don't seem to understand. There aren't enough people in Mogeely, Youghal, Killeagh and that's why IÉ don't have interest. That's also why an UEA or SDZ are needed to prompt extension of the line. I'm in favour of it. The greenway doesn't prevent it, rather it preserves the possibility.

And again, you still keep talking about choice between greenways. That you'd prefer Dungarvan over Youghal, Glounthaune over Midleton. It's an irrelevant point: I'd prefer an evening out in Amsterdam over an evening out in Cork, but proximity plays an oversized role in my choice. It seems that you fundamentally don't understand what's drawing people to the greenway in question, despite being very familiar with it. I observe people coming from Knockraha, Upper Glanmire, and all sorts of nearby places because it's a nearby pleasant spot for dog-walking, walking with children, going for a cycle etc. It's not people coming from far away, it's local people availing of an amenity. It's not because it's urban, rather it's because it's of high quality.

And my fitness to commute is extremely far from being unique. But even at that, most people intending to commute (like a previous poster in this thread) will get an e-bike or e-scooter. Fitness almost doesn't enter into a discussion about distance and time: it's a very very commutable distance, particularly because it's flat. The vast majority of people in Ireland have a 20-30 minute commute, and that's what this would be.

I'm going to level with you: I might be wrong but it seems to me that you're mostly hung up on the rail element of this. I strongly suggest you go to infrastructure or "commuting and transport" forums to discuss that point. This line has not been included on the Cork commuter rail strategy, on pathfinder, on the all-Ireland rail strategy, in CMATS, in the Cork County Development Plan etc. In every single transport discussion, this line has been turned down. There have been repeated opportunities to address this issue over the past year or two. Rail to Youghal is not happening for the medium term. It seems madness to me, to keep bringing it up on the greenway thread. It seems like a textbook example of letting the perfect prevent the good.

This greenway won't be perfect. Absolutely. I'd prefer lots of changes to it. But saying that it should be rail instead? What's the point of that discussion? You might as well say there should be an airport and hospital there, it's not going to happen.

Yeah it's unenforceable and it would be a pointless exercise.

When descending it's hard to tell the difference between someone moving on an e-scooter/bike and someone moving on a non-e version of same. So there's no real difference in the potential speed they can travel at, only in the effort of the end user to achieve the speed. E-bikes already cut out at 25km/h by law. E-scooters are 20km/h. So it's already possible that the non-e versions can travel faster, it just takes more energy to do it.

And thus, since there won't be speed limits on the greenway, and since there's already laws governing the use of e-scooters/bikes, what would be the benefit of introducing an arbitrary law for a greenway? As per the RSA: same rules that apply to cyclists will apply to e-scooters once the legislation is in place.

You've nothing to worry about here unless you have an e-bike or e-scooter that's illegally modified to achieve higher speeds. Which I'm sure you'd never do.

Well if you put all the unused railway lines together in the country then it would come to a significant cost. By the way the first railway bridge at Youghal had to be rebuilt,

They actually sold the land on those old lines they got rid of in the 60's, so yep someone does own them. I think the council must have assumed liability for those structures, but I would have doubts whether this was done in a controlled formal way!

Remember that Youghal was kept though: the line was sprayed a few times in the 90's or so which I remember, but the bit East of Midleton really fell into disrepair since the turn of the century after Midleton section was done. So the farm/building encroachment on it is all fairly recent, maybe 20 years or so.

Yes exactly. To be clear, when I say that IÉ sold the land on those old lines they got rid of in the 60's I'm referring to, for instance, the West Cork lines.

Youghal was, is, and will be owned by IÉ, is the current situation and has been confirmed as such by IÉ.

UPDATE on The Youghal to Midleton Greenway......

Youghal Chamber of Tourism and Development president Kay Curtin Kay's flowers at Clarke's was speaking to Deputy David Stanton this morning Re the greenway and he informed her that phase 1 Midleton to Mogeely will be open before the end of March and phase 2 Mogeely to Youghal will be open by the end of 2024.

Yeah the Mogeely stop has been done up nicely. With the new housing development going in there too, Mogeely is really coming on nicely, and is ideally situated as a commuter village (either to Midleton or onwards to the city).

Thats welcome news -

Had a quick wander up a few km of the green way today ( got chance after i finished work ) ,started at midleton train station ,

Honestly, really impressed

It felt open and spacious, -for a railway line .its basically a linear park ,

And plenty of people using it ..

Is Youghal not included? lol

I cycled this today but its not open to the public yet