Cork City Bus Network changes

This is great news for bus users in Cork. Despite some new routes and fleet renewal over the past decade or so, the archaic, confused nature of the citys bus routes have really held BE back.

The gradual expansion of later last buses such as on the 205 is most welcomed.

The merger of the 222/232 into, hopefully, a proper city route complete with city buses and frequencies is long overdue. It's quite an oddity that two of Cork's largest suburban towns* have had such poor timetabled services, more suited to the peripheral towns of the Cork metropolitan area then 2 suburbs with a combined population well in excess of 30k.

The next trick now is to somehow shoehorn Glanmire into the city network.

* Speaking of which, whatever happened to the proposed Ballincollig town bus service that was mooted around 2005/06? obviously its not been followed through but was it just an idea or was it ever fleshed out as an idea?

I still think Cork's bus network needs to be devolved like Dublin Bus.

It's utterly bizarre to have a fairly large urban transit system operated remotely as part of a long-distance bus company.

It should be Cork Bus or something.

Or better again, a fully integrated single brand for Cork Bus and Commuter Rail with a single ticketing system built on Leap cards.

I know the term CATS is used by the City Council. Cork Area Transit System.

CIE wrote: »

...and what will that achieve except more taxpayer money blown on non-operational fluff and jobs for warm bodies?

By "devolve" I would have thought that something like the private operations in Waterford (JJ Kavanagh, former Kenneally) was meant. Certainly back in Dublin, it has not been the case that any private operators have taken over bus operations that Dublin Bus have abandoned via Network Direct (not permitted? obstructed? I wonder if we'll ever know).

It would mean that routes could be put out to tender under a common brand with a common payment system and it would also mean that the City Council or some local transit body could take over the planning and management of the system. This is the norm in most countries.

KCAccidental wrote: »

nothing concrete for that I'm afraid, maybe before the end of the year.

while I agree with you on Model Farm Rd, it is useful to run some services there for CIT students from Ballincollig. perhaps they could run a couple of morning and evening services through there for CIT & CUH commuters. Everything else should run on the straight road though. The bus lanes on that stretch aren't used often enough.

This. I get the bus to work and it's 5-10 minutes late most days anyway, and when it's going the Model Farm Road way that adds an extra 10-15 minutes because it ends up stopping at stops served by the 208 all the way into town.