Light rail service

source

I've attached an image of my idea for a light rail system in Limerick. 2 lines, one of which is utilizing an already existing rail line, (would only require the construction of small luas type stations.

Red Line: (already existing route)

starts in Moyross, crosses river and stops at the main corbally road, then onto the Parkway, Continues to new Dunnes on childers road, Then stops at colbert station,then rathbane, then onto the crescent shopping centre and Fr. russell road.

Blue Line: (construction required)

Starts in the national tech park in plassey, then onto UL, then new oaklands development, then parkway retail park, meets with red line at the parkway, then onto the art college in clare street, stop outside the grannary, and onto arthurs quay park, then down the quays to riverpoint and accross the bridge, stop by salesians and roundabout for jetland and onto coonagh cross.

this would pretty much cover the majority city and would not cost a whole load to set up what with the existence of the track for the red line already. also the roads i've suggested would be on the whole wide enough to accomodate this without having to re route traffic.

prob never happen but any ideas or comments anyway?

talkingclock

you are talking about castles in the air.

if they would get their bus service sorted or replaced by a proper bus service than there would be no need for a tram.

IMHO.

irishguy

I dont think there is any need for a light rail system in Limerick. If it cost €100 Million to build that would buy ALLOT of buses and make ALLOT of QBC's. All they need is to buy some double decker/bendy buses and run services every 10mins at peak. Then people would use the bus allot more

limerick_man

They run buses every 10 mins throughout the day as it is... its not enough!!!

I think you've got some good ideas there, but i dont think the red line, without entering the city would be of much use. Plus it could be extended further into Raheen. But i dont think people will get the blue line to the Parkway and then pick up the red to Raheen/Moyross. The point is to make travel faster, Limerick isnt big enough for that to speed things up much

irishguy

The only bus service that is every 10mins is the Raheen one. Which is a good service. If all the routes had a service like that using higher capacity buses with bus lanes then there would be no problem getting around. Also bring in a no change policy on buses and sell books of tickets. It takes ages for people to count out all there 10c coins to pay for the bus, delaying eveyone and blocking the road.

5uspect

irishguy wrote:

Also bring in a no change policy on buses and sell books of tickets. It takes ages for people to count out all there 10c coins to pay for the bus, delaying eveyone and blocking the road.

better yet, adopt the German model where you buy your ticket at a vending machine (like with the luas). In some cities drivers don't even check tickets.
Also it seems that most timetables are far to optimistic and don't seem to expect delays resulting in chaos where a bus arrives when ever it arrives regardless of the timetable. In Germany a bus generally arrives on the minute and drivers often wait at a stop until the schedule dictated they move on.
Better planning all round.

I know I should move to Germany...

zilog_jones

irishguy wrote:

The only bus service that is every 10mins is the Raheen one. Which is a good service.

Good? I worked in the industrial estate last summer, and often had to wait up to an hour for a bus when I finished at 5pm. Just like all the other bus routes I've used in Limerick, they cannot accomodate for the appalling traffic in this town.

If all the routes had a service like that using higher capacity buses with bus lanes then there would be no problem getting around.

Have you not looked at Limerick? There's no room for bus lanes in most places! There are some places were they could add another lane, e.g. Childer's Road, but that won't solve the bottleneck at the crappy Parkway roundabout. And there's many routes where double decker or articulated buses will have serious trouble getting through (e.g. Caherdavin, and I dunno if a double decker will fit under the two train bridges in town), also they're not really needed a lot of the time anyway.

They need to get the traffic out of Limerick before any remotely reliable bus system can exist here.

foinse: Light rail systems usually use narrower gauge tracks than the normal InterCity/whatever trains, so your red line isn't really feasible. That and that track is used by other trains too.

5uspect

zilog_jones wrote:

They need to get the traffic out of Limerick before any remotely reliable bus system can exist here.

Thats true. I'm surprised how many people don't use the bypass and just use Childers Road instead. The bypass coupled with the new Ballysimon road to Castletroy allows you to completely avoid the Parkway. I've noticed the road getting busier lately since they cleared those "tenants" from it but not many seem to now about it still.

The Saint

I think there is some logic in utilising existing tracks in limerick for a light rail system. Tram-trains can be used on standard guage tracks and have an onboard diesel engine and can run on electric power.

While the bus service should be improved and bus lanes should be a priority I think there is a place for trams. Using existing infrastructure it would be relatively cheap and easy to implement. Maybe I'm delusional but I think it would be possible. Heres three lines that could be implemented on existing infrastructure.

The Saint

I think the Council are going to have a lot of trouble getting bus lanes put in place by the looks of it. Shame people are so short sighted.

Ballinacurra bus lane - out, out, out
By Marie Hobbins
RESIDENTS on leafy O’Connell Avenue and Ballinacurra have voiced strong objections to a bus lane-and they have the support of local councillors.

http://www2.limerickpost.ie/fullnews.elive?id=49&category=news

bazz26

The Saint wrote:

I think the Council are going to have a lot of trouble getting bus lanes put in place by the looks of it. Shame people are so short sighted.



http://www2.limerickpost.ie/fullnews.elive?id=49&category=news

I gather that most residents are objecting because they would no longer be able to park outside their own property if a bus lane is put there. I'm sure if any of us could no longer park our cars outside our own house we might not be too pleased either.

Also some of the routes are simply not wide enough for bus lanes even if you remove parking areas.

The Saint

I appreciate this. People who will lose their on street parking should be found alternative parking near by if possible or compensated so that they can build driveways (maybe even the council could build them). Of course not everywhere will be suitable for bus lanes but those that are should be utilised. Some buses could be re-routed down areas where bus lanes can be accomodated. O'Connell avenue and Ballinacurra rd would seem to be prime examples of where bus lanes would be ideal given the long stretch of the road.

Amazotheamazing

People don't own the road outside their houses, tough luck if they lose their parking space, imo.

The Saint

Amazotheamazing wrote:

People don't own the road outside their houses, tough luck if they lose their parking space, imo.

If that attitude is take I think the residents will make it impossible to take place. Councillors and local politicians will also support them as the article above shows. They'll have to be accomodated somehow if it is to go ahead.

ninty9er

The Ballinacurra residents have rear parking, but their cars become subject to vandalism at the rear of the houses making the on road parking the only safe option for them

Red Silurian

Ok how about (and this is just an idea being thrown out there) we stick a bus lane in the middle of the road? Has anybody considered how well that might work? It would enable residents to park outside their houses and make the bus a bit more reliable

dave 27

that means they would need to try and turn over onto the side of the road anytime theres a bus stop!

threads really shouldnt be continued when they were made over 3 years ago..this should be closed

Red Silurian

If there was a bus lane 3 years ago then we wouldn't need this thread to be revisited!

Amazotheamazing

colmtheperson wrote: »

Ok how about (and this is just an idea being thrown out there) we stick a bus lane in the middle of the road? Has anybody considered how well that might work? It would enable residents to park outside their houses and make the bus a bit more reliable

Same as a tramway line? It works with trams anyhow.

Red Silurian

Exactly like a tramway line... However, I'd imagine that a tramway would involve a lot of initial investment as opposed to a bus lane. If we did have a tram line I'd like to see it extend into ardnacrusha, shannon, pallaskennery and everywhere in between though

Kess73

ninty9er wrote: »

The Ballinacurra residents have rear parking, but their cars become subject to vandalism at the rear of the houses making the on road parking the only safe option for them

No not all the houses have rear access, and the ones that do not have it, are not being given permission to knock their front walls to build off road driveways for their cars. So some people would be in a position where they could not park their car anywhere near their own homes.

Cookiemunster

They're not actually losing their on street parking, the bus lane is to be placed outside the parking spaces. Have a look at the pdf maps at the bottom of this page.
http://www.limerickcity.ie/Transport/MajorProjects/SouthernGreenRouteCorridorImplementationPhase/

They are however going to have to get parking permits from the council to park there, which is what has already happened on Mulgrave St.

Kess73

That's the plans that were shown in 2005. Even if they did stick to that plan, do you not see a small problem with the outbound lane? The bus stops and the lane are the same. So when a bus uses a stop going outbound on that stretch, all traffic outbound will have to stop as the bus stop is not off of the traffic lane.

So on the outbound route, the buses will stop the traffic there, and the traffic will slow the buses. Which will basically wipe out any time gained by having a buslane going inbound only.

I see the residents standing their ground on this one. The council has changed it's plans too many times for that short route for people to trust them at this stage, plus the residents on O' Connell Avenue have objected to it as well through their resident's association as well.

Berty

Has anybody missed the important question?

Is there really a demand for a service like this?
Who would use it?
Who would happily pay for park and ride facilities at the stops?

Scar001

Was on this a few years ago in Wuppertal.
Built over 100 years ago.
Suspended over river/canal to minimize disruption.
Can be supported on one side.

5uspect

^My missus is from there.

It works there because Wuppertal is basically two towns merging into one city in a river valley. It simply follows the river across town. There is only a single line in each direction.

Since the valley is pretty steep and the city is already quite industrial it fits nicely into the landscape and local architecture. I would be a bit of an eye sore in flat Limerick.

It also needs a lot of maintenance due to it's age. Its a charming system and the locals generally love it. It also has a fairly colorful history.

The Althoff Circus orchestrated a publicity stunt by putting an elephant by the name of Tuffi on the train at the Alter Markt station. Tuffi became upset shortly into the ride, crashed through the left side of the car and fell into the river Wupper below. The elephant, two journalists, and one passenger received minor injuries. Both the operator and the circus director were fined after the incident. To this day, the wall of a building at the location of the event (in-between the stations Alter Markt and Adlerbrücke) shows a painting of a jumping elephant.

They've a similar system in Dusseldorf airport that is regularly down for maintenance.

Red Silurian

Actually if you think of it one of the above systems wouldn't be a bad idea... It could go above the roads thereby removing the need for a bus lane altogether... Only thing is they'd be very expensive

5uspect

Residents also wouldn't like it going past their homes for fear of noise or blocking sunlight.

Itsdacraic

Is there a chance the track could bend?

5uspect

As with any engineering project the track is designed to bend within its elastic limits.

Itsdacraic

5uspect wrote: »

As with any engineering project the track is designed to bend within its elastic limits.

I hear those things are awfully loud???

Henry Ford III

Itsdacraic wrote: »

Is there a chance the track could bend?

Not on your life my hindu friend

Itsdacraic

Damn you. I had a live one.

Insect Overlord

This forum has a serious track record for de-railing threads.
Someone should train you all to keep topic:thread ratios mono a mono :pac:

5uspect

D'oh!

Berty

Drat, we nearly had a whole week without the Monorail song.






"What about us brain dead slobs?"

Conor Bourke

You'll be given cushy jobs!

Oh it's just too easy....

miralize

All I want is the Ballycumin bus to run every 10 or 20 minutes even.. and an earlier time