moyross draft regeneration plan unveils plans for station

[jpsartre]

spot on with the bird's eye view of the proposed road and rail line intersection

You're really skeptical about the catchment area eh? Maybe if you used the approach roads from this side of town at rush hour you might not be such a doubting Thomas.

A station there will also serve a growing local population in the immediate vicinity of the site . Notice the area in magenta adjacent to the proposed station on the regen. pdf. This will be the site of a new 80 acre industrial estate. Up to 3000 jobs will be created here eventually,http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/Li...-to.4484057.jp. I'm sure the consortium behind it could be persuaded to contribute something to the cost a station there. (The local councils are very good at that kind of thing ..soliciting contributions etc.). It would certainly put their development on the map nationally. Limerick37 also have big plans for that area around knockalisheen. Sure the station planned for Moyross would probably suffice but its a big area and I wouldn't be in favour of bringing traffic into the new village centre either if there were a consensus on the park & ride facility.

The rail option does't really involve circling the city. I mean I know how it looks on a map but it only takes ten minutes, moving at a snails pace, to get from colbert station to that part of town. Try taking a bus from Colbert station to Moyross at peak periods or from the Parkway or from the Ballysimon road! (These locations along with Corbally should also have platforms on this line).
And as for bus corridors?

Arup, as you know, have been busy drawing up plans/proposals for so-called Green Routes, (bus corridors to you and me) around the city on behalf of the council. I think its a great idea but you need the roads to do it. Recently, the proposed bus lane in Raheen was knocked back by city councillors, officially because the roads there were too narrow to accomodate dedicated bus lanes. The council's plan for a green route,http://www.limerickcity.ie/GreenRout...le,7953,en.pdf, from Moyross to the city centre does not address the problem of cars coming from outside the city. That problem remains the same and my guess is it they who are largely responsible for the traffic problems, though of course they can't be blamed in the absence of a credible public transport system. If you are a bit skeptical about the catchment area for a P&R then I'm doubly skeptical as to the possibility of a QBS between Moyress & the City Centre via the Cratloe road, Thomondgate and Sarsfield bridge. Traffic Chaos! Stop the cars from coming in first of all with P&Rs, WAKE UP to the potential of the existing rail network and exploit it as any other modern European city of comparable size to Limerick would do if they were given our rail network as a present, and then start thinking about your 'Green Routes'.

[dowlingm]

Interesting info there jps. The only thing I'd quibble with directly is the private sector contributions given the current state of the economy, but otherwise I'll defer to your local knowledge of the commuting patterns.

[ccos]

I going to say I'm quite amazed with the phrases "regeneration", "plan" and "railway" appearing together is there something happening to Ireland.
I have to agree with jpsarte though, anytime I've travelld to Ennis I've been amazed at the lack of stops in Limerick but to make a P&R work you really need something better then a bi-hourly service.

[jpsartre]

ccos

Don't get your hopes up.

Got wind today that Jim Meade, IE's regional manager for the west was at Colbert Station aswering questions from customers so I thought I'd mosie down and make a nuisance of myself.

Firstly I asked Jim what his thoughts were on the new station planned for Moyress in the regen. plan. He said he'd got an email from somebody about it and thats it. His reply (to the email) was you build it and then maybe we'll get involved. Not an encouraging start though he was keen to point out that the Ennis line was a great success so far and Sixmilebridge was still on course.

I then asked him about the Nenagh line, (while I had him as it were). I've never used this line and I know nothing about trains & railways so bear with me. This route he said wasn't going so well though he said it would be a year from now before they could say for sure whether it was going to work or not (from their point of view i.e. ROI). The IE engineers are currently working on upgrading the line which will take them to the end of the year at which time there will be no more money available to do work on this stretch of line. At least that's how I understand it. After this there will be a bedding in period. Ultimately the goal is to guarantee a 50 minute service time as advertised at an average speed of 40mph (still seems slow to me) rather than the current 25mph. He wasn't really interested in adding further scheduled services because of the low uptake. He referred to a study done by a group at U.L which calculated that an average of 60 commuters would be using the line at this stage. However the number is in fact in the low 20's (although last weeek there was a couple of days where no's were in the low 30's). He readily acknowledged that the service was not up to standard and this was certainly a factor in the low uptake no's. For this reason the success or otherwise of the service will not be judged until they can provide the advertised service. I remarked that arrival time of 8:45 was in itself cutting it fine. He said that that there were no earlier slots available at Colbert and that many of the people who use the line would be happy if IE could manage 9:45 esp. students attending grind colleges like Bruce where doors shut at 9:00.

Finally I asked him about Park n' Rides & a suburban rail network in Limerick City that would serve Raheen, Corbally etc using existing tracks. Again not very encouraging. Cost benefit seemed to enter into everything. He was very hopeful about Tuam for example if an adequately sized carpart
could be managed at the station but was quite dismissive of short rail journeys like moyress-colber because he argued the concentrations of people weren't there and short journeys were not lucrative for them whereas long ones were. He mentioned a feasibility study by PUTS (correct?) that had looked at a line for Castletroy and the Parkway via UL but this idea had long since fallen by the wayside. He feels that that the lack of bus corridors in the city centre and the City Council's refusal to allow them prevents Colbert from linking up better with areas like Raheen and this is a big problem for them in marketing their commuter services.

On policy he said that the present government has done more fo rail in Ireland and has been more supportive of rail than any other govt. in the past. But he did admit that there is a greater emphasis being placed on making services profitable. He said a few more things as well but I think I've said enough. (Nice guy though & answered the questions directly). Any comments?

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by jpsartre

Firstly I asked Jim what his thoughts were on the new station planned for Moyress in the regen. plan. He said he'd got an email from somebody about it and thats it. His reply (to the email) was you build it and then maybe we'll get involved. Not an encouraging start though he was keen to point out that the Ennis line was a great success so far and Sixmilebridge was still on course.

Its all well and good to build a station, but unless it has good patronage it is merely a burden on the system - look at Monasterevin. Now, give them a station and pay for a train and they are much more amenable.

Ideally a station should be in a location with very high density* for both origin (residents) and destination (work/study/leisure) and connect with similar locations. While Limerick has a good rail network, it doesn't match the settlement pattern.


* Very high density does not equal very tall buildings. In the Irish context density is often defined by the presence or absence of udner-used institutional land.