Help! Drive time to RDS!

napoles

Hi There
I'm hoping that some of you helpful people can give me a bit of advice..
I need to know how long it will take to get from the Red Cow to the RDS at about 7 am on a Wednesday morning.

We plan to go along the canal and will be driving a horse truck. Am not from Dublin or anywhere remotely near it (Cork actually), so will have had a 3/4 hour journey before we ever get to Red Cow. I am on a very tight timetable so would really appreciate some advice from people who may do that route regularly.
Thanks in advance.

patrickc

napoles wrote: »

Hi There
I'm hoping that some of you helpful people can give me a bit of advice..
I need to know how long it will take to get from the Red Cow to the RDS at about 7 am on a Wednesday morning.

We plan to go along the canal and will be driving a horse truck. Am not from Dublin or anywhere remotely near it (Cork actually), so will have had a 3/4 hour journey before we ever get to Red Cow. I am on a very tight timetable so would really appreciate some advice from people who may do that route regularly.
Thanks in advance.

if you hit the red cow at 7 i'd imagine you'll do it in 30/40mins at that time, once 7.50 on comes traffic gets alot worse

dogmatix

40 minutes sounds about right for 7am. But any later and you should be thinking about adding 3 minutes to the travel time for every 1 minute after 7am you arrive at the red cow.

Victor

Give yourself plenty of time for getting in lane coming up to the Red Cow.

SickCert

Do yourself a favour and try and hit it at 630am.

DWCommuter

May I suggest the following as an alternative.

If you hit the red cow at 7, then take the M50 southbound to the Sandyford exit. Follow the signposts for the Dun Laoghaire. It takes you to a cross roads with the N11. Turn left and head city bound. At the end of the N11 dual carraigeway you'll see the signposts for ballsbridge. Follow them and you can't miss the RDS.

napoles

DWCommuter wrote: »

May I suggest the following as an alternative.

If you hit the red cow at 7, then take the M50 southbound to the Sandyford exit. Follow the signposts for the Dun Laoghaire. It takes you to a cross roads with the N11. Turn left and head city bound. At the end of the N11 dual carraigeway you'll see the signposts for ballsbridge. Follow them and you can't miss the RDS.

Thanks DW - I think we've taken that route before alright. Do you think it would be quicker at that time of the morning?

patrickc

DWCommuter wrote: »

May I suggest the following as an alternative.

If you hit the red cow at 7, then take the M50 southbound to the Sandyford exit. Follow the signposts for the Dun Laoghaire. It takes you to a cross roads with the N11. Turn left and head city bound. At the end of the N11 dual carraigeway you'll see the signposts for ballsbridge. Follow them and you can't miss the RDS.

napoles wrote: »

Thanks DW - I think we've taken that route before alright. Do you think it would be quicker at that time of the morning?

i personally don't think it'd be much quicker then, wouldnt the stillorgan dual carriageway be building up by then?

DWCommuter

patrickc wrote: »

i personally don't think it'd be much quicker then, wouldnt the stillorgan dual carriageway be building up by then?

Possibly. But the canal can be deadly. Anyway its another option and the one I'd take. In general the Stillorgan DC doesn't get congested until around 7.45. They should be well off it by then. Journey time from Red Cow to RDS on that route is approx. 30mins at that time of the morning.

napoles

Decisions, decisions... Sounds like I'm going to be stressing either way!!

MaceFace

I do this route every day and the quickest and easiest is the Long Mile Road, and cut down the Kildare Road at Our Ladys.
You can decide to get onto the canal at the end of that road, or if things are busy, go over the canal and take the right hand turn onto the South Circular.

I go this way every day and during the summer, it never takes much longer than half an hour. This morning I was at the Red Cow at 7.40 and at the RDS at 8.10. Same most of last week.

If you head up the M50, you will be half an hour just to get to the end.
God knows what you will do when you get to the end....

If you are worried, listen to Dublin City FM and they will let you know if things how things are.

napoles

Thanks a million Maceface. That's exactly the sort of thing I need to know - from someone who does the route every day. I may be in touch again nearer the time in case there are any dodgy roadworks that would affect a horse lorry's route also!!

napoles

MaceFace wrote: »

I do this route every day and the quickest and easiest is the Long Mile Road, and cut down the Kildare Road at Our Ladys.
You can decide to get onto the canal at the end of that road, or if things are busy, go over the canal and take the right hand turn onto the South Circular.

I go this way every day and during the summer, it never takes much longer than half an hour. This morning I was at the Red Cow at 7.40 and at the RDS at 8.10. Same most of last week.

If you head up the M50, you will be half an hour just to get to the end.
God knows what you will do when you get to the end....

If you are worried, listen to Dublin City FM and they will let you know if things how things are.

Thanks a million everyone for your replies thus far.:)

I am now getting into the packing and preparation stage for next week's pilgrimage to the Dublin Horse Show. Does the advice above still stand, i.e. there have been no sneaky roadworks or diversions stuck into the route in the meantime???

Sorry, to sound like such a panicker, it's just that I will be on a shockingly tight timeline, so can't afford to go wrong...