If you had €10billion......

sonyair

If you had €10billion to spare what would you do as minister of transport?








________________________________
visit my website: www.eirtalk.com

Random

Buy a small country somewhere free of recession and live there for the rest of my life.

Give it to the Dept of Health? Justice?

Run_to_da_hills

I would build another port tunnel from the South Side linking up with the N11 and allow trucks FOC and also heavily penalise other motorists so that it would be very seldom used during peak times.

SeanW

I'd start by building the Interconnector and Metro North and adding one more Luas line through a large section of Dublin City. Electrify the Cork suburban railways incl. Midleton Light rail in Cork.. Maybe also Limerick and Galway. More cycling infrastructure nationwide including large amounts of segregated cycle lanes on raised curbing and in parks and greens etc. Complete the M4 motorway to Longford town and the N5 bypass. Sort out the Newlands Cross junction on the N7 near Dublin. Use the change to go through the list of towns still needing a bypass in order of need.

Chris_533976

Interconnector, Luas linkup and Metro North.

The current second round PPPs (and M20)

Cork South ring road work and N28 upgrade

Creation of Cork Bus, Galway Bus etc etc and lots of dedicated bus corridors to make buses in the cities actually useful rather than just a trophy service

Upgrade all the junctions that the NRA have ****ed up on.

A Tranche 3 of motorway redesignations

Nostradamus

Brand new high speed line: Belfast-Navan-Airport-City Centre and on to Cork. Full DB ICE specs for intercity, commuter and freight.

and a nuclear power station to run it and the rest of the national power grid.

L1011

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Upgrade all the junctions that the NRA have ****ed up on.

This, including building all movements on the M4/M6 and M7/M9 splits would be on my list anyway.

The N4 The Downs grade separation would be very high on it too as I personally think its one of the most deceptively dangerous bits of road in the country. Most other dangerous roads you get an idea they're bad. This is well surfaced bit of road between two D2M grade sections, and because its two lanes each side, people continue at 120km/h+ despite there being median crossings.

run through the second round PPPs then start building bypasses of towns on a need order. If they were going to be bypassed by parts of planned motorways, build these segments leaving each end properly GSJed waiting for the rest to get funded.

Use whats left over to remove as many low speed restrictions on the main train lines as possible, and working towards separating all level crossings on national roads.

G_R

hmmm...

Metro North
Inter-connector
Newlands X
M20
M25 (not N, meaning i wud make it M-Way)
Luas Linkup
Make M7/M9 and every other similar stupid interchange in the country all movements
Make the M50 a full ring

I'm pretty sure I've spent over €10bn there but if somehow i have any left over I'd give it to the Health Dept.

deiseman21

Nostradamus wrote: »

Brand new high speed line: Belfast-Navan-Airport-City Centre and on to Cork. Full DB ICE specs for intercity, commuter and freight.

and a nuclear power station to run it and the rest of the national power grid.

by the time it got up to speed between navan - airport -city centre the train would be in the bay bright spark

DWCommuter

deiseman21 wrote: »

by the time it got up to speed between navan - airport -city centre the train would be in the bay bright spark

He was joking, not so bright spark.

BluntGuy

Interconnector

Followed by:

Newlands Cross
More Cycle Paths
SRR roundabouts (inc. Dunkettle)
Metro North
Electrifying Cork-Dublin, Dublin-Belfast and Cork Commuter Lines

And if by some miracle we have money left over from that:

M20
Fix the god-damn M7/M8 junction - horrendous

Bluetonic

It's all very well with all the ideas but any chance of realistic costings.

I'd look at strategic planning to reduce the need for unecessary journeys, look at the numbers that commute half way across the country to work!

Tech3

Interconnector, Merto North

Roads:

Newlands Cross
N11 gap
Galway City Outer Bypass
M17/M18
M20
Cork City ring road proper upgrade with no roundabouts and traffic lights this time ffs
Claregalway Bypass

2+2 upgrades on other national primary roads. N21, N17, N5, N25, N4.

I would be pleased if the M17/M18 went ahead at least.

Tech3

Bluetonic wrote: »

It's all very well with all the ideas but any chance of realistic costings.

The M17/M18 will cost in the region of €700 million not sure about the rest as they are only estimated costs. We know where this leads when looking at past estimates especially for the big projects like Metro North. It could end up being way off the estimated price.

T Corolla

I would electrify all the rail lines to Maynooth/Kidare/Navan/Drogheda
I would re-open the Mullingar to Athlone railway and the Navan to Drogheda(two of the best quality railways in terms of layout been left to rot is very bad) and reroute the enterprise train via navan and upgrade it an hourly service. I would electrify the cork commuter railways. On the roads I would complete the N52 from Ardee to Mullingar and beyond and upgrade the N55 from Athlone to Edgeworthtown. If ther was anything left over I would lay some cycling lanes in towns some people could actually use them instead of the substandard one in existance

BluntGuy

Bluetonic wrote: »

It's all very well with all the ideas but any chance of realistic costings.

Hm, well for my projects:

Interconnector - No costs announced - guessing for the whole project it might amount to €2 - €4 billion. I heard the tunnel element of the project, the cost'll be around €1 billion.

Interconnector is the most vital transport project at the moment, for the whole country. It NEEDS to go ahead no matter what. IE and the media need to start pushing for it, especially if it comes down to a choice between MN and IC in the short-term.

Newlands Cross I heard was to cost in the region of €50 million.

More Cycle Paths - Dunno, I'd imagine you could do quite a bit for €100 - €200 million.

SRR roundabouts - I dunno the cost. Kinsale Road Roundabout upgrade cost in the region of €50 million AFAIR. I presume the other two roundabouts plus a Dunkettle upgrade wouldn't exceed €300 million.

Metro North - haven't a clue what the cost is. I've heard €5 billion, €2 billion, €3 billion... all sorts of costs thrown around.

Electrifying Cork-Dublin, Cork-Belfast and Cork Commuter... electrification for 1 km of track could cost in the region of €1 million, plus you'd have all the other associated costs like upgrading stations, electrical sub stations etc.. So I'd imagine, altogether, this would come to maybe €500 - €600 million.

The M20 has been costed at around €1 billion.

I haven't a clue how much it would cost to tidy-up the M7/M8 junction.

Gonzo

Interconnector
Metro North
Luas from Dublin to Navan including large station at Blanchardstown
M2 to Slane
M3 to Cavan
M4 to Longford
Newlands Cross
Upgrade Naas Road dual carriageway to full M7 status
Upgrade N4 From Capelisid to Leixlip to full M4 status
Upgrade M7/M9 junctions and M7/M8 junctions
Upgrade N3 from Ashtown to start of M3 with 3 lanes each direction.
M20
upgrade N11 to M11 from Loughlinstown to Rosslare Harbour.
upgrade n18 to M18 from Limerick to Galway

Change all Irish Road network signage to new and improved signage. (lowercase and Irish written in yellow)

Gonzo

Gonzo wrote: »

Change all Irish Road network signage to new and improved signage. (lowercase and Irish written in yellow)

+100

Hagar

sonyair wrote: »

If you had €10billion to spare what would you do as minister of transport?

Hire all my family as consultants, right?

marmurr1916

National Primary Routes:

M2 from border (tying in with A5 HQDC) to Ardee; 2+2 from Ardee to Ashbourne.

All 2+2 roads should be built with sufficiently wide reservations either side and sufficiently wide bridges, underpasses, overpasses etc to allow for future upgrade to D2M.

M3 extended to merge with Cavan bypass, 2+2 upgrade to Cavan bypass and 2+2 to border at Aghalane.

M4 extended to near Boyle, and from Castlebaldwin to Sligo, freeflow junction allowing all movements with M6.

N5: 2+2 on entire route.

M6: extended westwards as Galway Outer Bypass, freeflow junction allowing all movements with M4, M17/M18.

M7/M8: freeflow junction allowing all movements at junction of M7/M8; M7 upgrade to D3M from end of Naas dual-carriageway to junction with M9.

M9: freeflow junction allowing all movements with M7.

M11: complete motorway from junction with M50 to Wexford, joins with M25.

M13: outside Letterkenny to Bridgend, dual-carriageway bypass there to connect with main road into Derry city.

N14: 2+2 to north of Lifford, joins with N15.

N15: part dual-carriageway, part 2+2 from Sligo to north of Lifford, new bridge north of Strabane to connect with A5 HQDC.

N16: 2+2 and WS2 from Sligo to border.

N17: 2+2 from start near Collooney to north of Tuam, M17 from there to join M18.

N18/M18: upgrade dual-carriageway from near Limerick to Bunratty (better interchanges, no right turns, service road for access from houses etc.), complete M18/M17 scheme from Gort to Tuam.

M20: build it!

N21: 2+2 from junction with M20 to outside Tralee, Tralee bypass/ring-road (dual-carriageway) to connect with N86 Tralee-Dingle road.

N22: extend as motorway to west of Macroom, 2+2 from there to Killarney, dual-carriageway from Killarney to Tralee, build Cork North Ring Road as M22.

N23: 2+2 entire route.

N24: motorway from Waterford to west of Clonmel, 2+2 from there to near Limerick, last few kms as m-way to join with M7 Limerick Southern Ring-Road.

N25: motorway from Cork to Rosslare (upgrade Waterford City Bypass as necessary).

N33: 2+2 between M1 and Ardee.

National Secondary Routes:

upgrade N61 and N62, N80 from Portlaoise to north of Tullamore, N52 from north of Tullamore to Ardee (joins N33) to motorway standard.

build M77 between M9 south-east of Kilkenny and M8 near Durrow.

Rail:

build interconnector

complete proposed metro lines

complete proposed luas lines

trams (not luas) in Cork, Limerick, Galway and areas of Dublin

upgrade all lines from Dublin, plus WRC to allow for average speed of at least 140 km/h

build connecting lines between Portalington and Athy and between Clara and Athlone-Mullingar line: this would allow for services between Sligo and Waterford/Kilkenny via Longord and the midlands - upgrade this entire route to allow for average speeds of 140 km/h

At some point, I'd probably have to borrow about another €10 billion or more, but sure I'm good for it...:D

invincibleirish

I do enjoy these Santa's list threads, but i'm gonna take the view of what Ireland could just about build because its in debt to 10s of Billions a year for the foreseeable future.

Road:

Newlands X
Cork SRR/N25 upgrade
M20
Galway Bypass
N11 Rathnew

Rail:
Renewal of profitable intercity lines
Renewal of Dublin commuter lines
Interconnector
Trams where justifiable

Nostradamus

deiseman21 wrote: »

by the time it got up to speed between navan - airport -city centre the train would be in the bay bright spark

Oh Gawd! LOL! If irony was a currency perhaps...:rolleyes:

One born ever minute.

BluntGuy

invincibleirish wrote: »

I do enjoy these Santa's list threads, but i'm gonna take the view of what Ireland could just about build because its in debt to 10s of Billions a year for the foreseeable future.

Road:

Newlands X
Cork SRR/N25 upgrade
M20
Galway Bypass
N11 Rathnew

Rail:
Renewal of profitable intercity lines
Renewal of Dublin commuter lines
Interconnector
Trams where justifiable

And even that's being optimistic.

The interconnector project is the one scheme that MUST be delivered NOW. It is absolutely vital. IE haven't stressed that enough. Pressure must be put on the government to deliver it.

Mint Sauce

ooo, a dream list, is this for a good of the country list or for the good of the poster list



metro north with connecting stops on both luas lines, none of this five/ten minute milarkly between lines

extend the WRC to sligo, letterkenny and derry

more flights bewteen the countries regional airports

a proper sligo town by pass, and not the current relief road with its 1/2 dozen set of traffic lights along a roughly 1km stretch

N15 by pass of ballybofey/stranorlar

how much will all that set me back

L1011

I'd expect the WRC to Derry - for which there is no existing standard gauge path to use - would be close to the full 10Bn of itself...

deiseman21

Nostradamus wrote: »

Oh Gawd! LOL! If irony was a currency perhaps...:rolleyes:

One born ever minute.

high speed rail in ireland ,possibly the most ironic statement made in this thread:D