N8/N25/N40 - Dunkettle Interchange [open to traffic]

I'm not sure what you're both discussing, but the current P&R proposal is a surface car park at North Esk, feeding a train station there. I'm saying put the parking at Little Island and develop North Esk as an office-type employment area like Eastgate. It'd be connected by "greenway" (let's not discuss the shambolic design).

I think the P&R at North Esk is already far too far from the M8 to be of any real value. It'll only really be useful for people coming from the East. Almost nobody is coming down the M8 and going in to Tivoli now, they're all exiting at Killalough and Watergrasshill and rat running through the Northside. I see almost no value in another car park 1km away from Little Island station car park.

I'd agree that tenants of office developments outside the city want parking spaces, but they're already being refused them: see the unfortunately-named Parkplace in Eastgate! I definitely agree that it's better to encourage offices at Kent in fairness, I just don't see the value in a P&R so close to Little Island and so far from the M8. I'd sooner see one at the other side of the Interchange at the Tivoli Crosbie Transcar holding lot: it could double up as a station for the future development of the lands there. With loads of spaces free in Little Island every day I'd say of all the proposed stations in the Cork area, the North Esk one looks like one of the least useful

I think charging anything to use a P&R car park is a mistake. The recurring costs of running a car park with no tolling infrastructure are negligible, so there isn’t a whole lot to be covered, and any deterrent can have a significant effect on uptake.

• Financial: Even €1 a day adds up over a 46-week work year. It’s €230 after tax but if your marginal rate is 42% that’s approx €460 a year out of your salary when USC and PRSI are factored in.
• Convenience: Sure, we should all be chill Zen monks during rush hour, but nobody wants to queue at a barrier to get in or out of a car park, nor do they want to stand in the rain at a pay+display machine.

And any loss in revenue for Ireland Inc from not charging for the P of P&R has to be offset against the reduction in costs associated with having fewer private vehicles on our streets.

FWIW, if I was responsible for transport, I wouldn’t even be charging for the R of P&R but I know that is a bridge too far for many.

The problem with P&R, and likely the reason they've been put on the long-finger is because the second someone gets into a car they're less likely to use public transport. While all of us who drive already think that a P&R is great, the top priority is retaining the people who already use public transport: trying to get them to not buy a car.

That's again why I favour putting money into Tivoli or Little Island rather than North Esk. At both, station upgrades can make the station valuable for both P&R and non-car users.

One place where I really strongly favour a P&R though is Blarney. And a small station in Blackpool. But these will probably only start when the passing loop in Kent is done.

A P&R at Ballincollig or Glanmire would see bus passengers stuck in traffic behind cars unfortunately, so we desperately need bus priority to get full value out of them. The one at black ash works because the bus usually isn't badly held up too badly by traffic.

Anyway just keeping it on-topic, I don't see P&R as being a high priority for Dunkettle/North Esk

On the tunnel , I don't think the tunnel is the problem , it's the multiple merges just before the tunnel , ( heading south ..) pre summer In the mornings I the was going from bumper to bumper traffic on the approach to traffic starting to stretch out a bit in the tunnel , unless of course there was a crash on the n40 ,

The dunkettle interchange is the biggest traffic interchange in cork , that it was built without any thought to public transport is a bit bonkers,

So a ,city centre, ballincolig, CUH,UCC,CIT, quality rail service will make the midleton ,cobh and mallow services far more useful ,

Kind of need an effective south ring bus service too , basically dunkettle to bandon road , fast frequent,and connected to as many other transport routes as possible..

214 runs from the station to CUH these days, but 214 is not a frequent, or particularly punctual, service.

Corrected my post. I meant the 214 goes halfway to Bandon, not the 208. The route of the 214 is absolutely ridiculous. Busconnects will help with that, if the whingers would go away.