Galway Station Redevelopment Still on?

FlameoftheWest

Is this project still going ahead? I thought it was by far the most imaginative and best utilisation of an existing IE station...and BADLY needed.

Anyone know the story with this? That huge black coffin which sits over the tracks is beyond horrible.

DWCommuter

http://www.cie.ie/projects/galway_station_redevelopment.asp

Hasn't been updated since 2007 by the looks of it. Usual story applies. Building boom over, credit crunch and CIE time warp.

Sponge Bob

Fella with beard and red costume says "Ho Ho Ho". I would listen out for him

AlekSmart

One could add the Dublin Bus development in Strand Street to the Galway site and ask the same question.

The last news on Strand St was a delay in the Hotel Management end of the PPP scheme.

Worse still was the Bus end of the proposal was quite tidy and would have allowed a bit of comfort to finally be provided to intending passengers,seeing as Dublin City Council can`t bring itself to allow a few oul shelters near O Connell St !!

FlameoftheWest

It isa lovely project going by the plans. Be a shame for it to get canned - the public transport aspect anyways. The art gallery in old loco shed was sweet.

Victor

I thought I saw some publicity on it recently.

DWCommuter

One for the future no doubt. However, I find it somewhat disturbing that CIE, when instructed by the MOT (the late S. Brennan) to use their land to apparently fund their transport operations, now have vast sites that are currently worth damn all. While I often criticise them for their property development side of things, it seems that they even failed there as well. They took far to long to capitilise on the now mourned boom. But perhaps too much emphasis was put on Spencer Dock in Dublin. Half developed, disasterous transport integration and a ghost town environment. Meanwhile Cork, Limerick and Galway look doomed for now and the irony there is that those projects actually looked good. And lets not forget Tara Street. The skyscraper to railway heaven.....apparently.:D

Sponge Bob

DWCommuter wrote: »

One for the future no doubt.

Ho, Ho, Ho.!

Zoney

I'm curious too if Limerick station development is to happen still - in that case the main railway station isn't due for many changes but rather a new Bus Éireann station is to be built adjoining it on the northeast side of the building, with a new bus yard to the east behind it, with buses accessing via Roxborough road. The car park in front of the railway station is to be remodelled to be landscaped with plants and a better pick-up area. I think the new station car park is to be beyond the current bus yard south of the station.

Jim Martin

I noticed on my trip from Ennis on the recently re-opened service last Thurs, that the old loco turntable is still en situ at Galway. I wonder if there's a chance it could be restored for use & re-connected to enable steam loco's to be turned on specials to bring a bit more business to the west of Ireland? Where's the pro-active marketing? Seems that there are too many lost business opportunities in Ireland (this is the view of an Englishman, sorry!)

FlameoftheWest

Jim Martin wrote: »

I noticed on my trip from Ennis on the recently re-opened service last Thurs, that the old loco turntable is still en situ at Galway. I wonder if there's a chance it could be restored for use & re-connected to enable steam loco's to be turned on specials to bring a bit more business to the west of Ireland? Where's the pro-active marketing? Seems that there are too many lost business opportunities in Ireland (this is the view of an Englishman, sorry!)

The whole station area is prime to be redevised as an arts centre. An imposing modern sculpture would look great in the turntable well and would provide a fitting entrance to the city. The conversion of the loco shed into a gallery is a fantastic idea and will being people in to the city not just from outside but from other parts of Galway.

Mrs OBumble

In mid April, CIE and the Harbour Company did a proposal to the council:

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/24846

No mention in the article of proposed funding sources, but people are talking as though it's still "on". I suspect that the involvement of the Harbour Company means there's more drive going on than in some other projects.

And there have been some preparatory changes too: BE's garage has been moved from behind the station to (I'm told) somewhere down in the Harbour Enterprise Park.

Sponge Bob

Ho Ho Ho!! Gerry Barrett owned a lot of that station site in galway so it is largely up to NAMA to develop this site not CIE . Ho! Ho! Ho!

Seeing as all the funding has to come from the public sector over the next 5 years at least and seeing as galway is full of empty offices and empty shops and empty apartments I think that a strong Ho! Ho! Ho! business case can be made for such an epic megadevelopment in these times.

Of course it will Ho! Ho! Ho! happen. Bulldozers and Piledrivers on site any day now. Onwards and Ho! Ho! Ho! upwards I say!

DWCommuter

Jim Martin wrote: »

I noticed on my trip from Ennis on the recently re-opened service last Thurs, that the old loco turntable is still en situ at Galway. I wonder if there's a chance it could be restored for use & re-connected to enable steam loco's to be turned on specials to bring a bit more business to the west of Ireland? Where's the pro-active marketing? Seems that there are too many lost business opportunities in Ireland (this is the view of an Englishman, sorry!)

Restoring a turntable at tax payers expense for steam railtours that generate a limited amount of annual revenue is certainly not a priority or a business opportunity worth developing. The only steam train operator using the network is the RPSI. If they want the turntable in Galway operational, then they should pay for it and request that it be included in any redevelopment.

DWCommuter

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Ho Ho Ho!! Gerry Barrett owned a lot of that station site in galway so it is largely up to NAMA to develop this site not CIE . Ho! Ho! Ho!

Seeing as all the funding has to come from the public sector over the next 5 years at least and seeing as galway is full of empty offices and empty shops and empty apartments I think that a strong Ho! Ho! Ho! business case can be made for such an epic megadevelopment in these times.

Of course it will Ho! Ho! Ho! happen. Bulldozers and Piledrivers on site any day now. Onwards and Ho! Ho! Ho! upwards I say!

CIE missed the train as usual.:D

Sponge Bob

DWCommuter wrote: »

CIE missed the train as usual.:D

They can go back to running freight trains safe in the knowledge that the skyscrapers are not coming soon to their freight yards in Heuston and Galway and Limerick and not forgetting Cork neither

Victor

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0422/1224268876328.html

Sponge Bob

Victor wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0422/1224268876328.html

IE brings land ONLY and gets to gain transport 'underneath' for ceding the airspace . This is the same model as Broadgate in the City of London 25 years ago or Cannon Street. It is an "air rights" play for them

Last time I noticed Galway was not the City of London. :cool:

This will deliver to the people of Galway a new city quarter which will complement and enhance the existing Galway City area. A vibrant, mixed-use quarter is envisaged, encapsulating:

• Cultural and community facilities
• New homes in the City including social and affordable housing
• New squares and pedestrianised zones
• Urban retail and commercial facilities, to enhance the economic development of the city, and provide employment
• Leisure facilities, to benefit the city and wider West of Ireland region
• Restaurants, hotels and bars, boosting the social and tourism infrastructure of the city and region
• Existing protected structures, will be preserved and incorporated into the new Ceannt Station Quarter
• High quality, environmentally sustainable urban design, with energy saving technology

dowlingm

It's hard to sell air rights in a country where 6 storeys = skyscraper :rolleyes:

Jim Martin

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

The whole station area is prime to be redevised as an arts centre. An imposing modern sculpture would look great in the turntable well and would provide a fitting entrance to the city. The conversion of the loco shed into a gallery is a fantastic idea and will being people in to the city not just from outside but from other parts of Galway.

Would rather see it used for what it was intended for i.e. turning loco's (preferably steam)!

Jim Martin

DWCommuter wrote: »

Restoring a turntable at tax payers expense for steam railtours that generate a limited amount of annual revenue is certainly not a priority or a business opportunity worth developing. The only steam train operator using the network is the RPSI. If they want the turntable in Galway operational, then they should pay for it and request that it be included in any redevelopment.

Sorry, don't agree at all! If (IF) it was marketed properly, there could be a huge tourist visitor potential here as there is in other countries e.g. UK:

http://www.uksteam.info/tours/lem09.htm

Cookie_Monster

Iarnród Éireann says that it is committed to its €800 million redevelopment of Galway’s Ceannt Station, transforming it into a larger train station than Dublin’s Connolly and a larger bus station than Busaras in the capital.

That sounds like massive overkill to me tbh

DWCommuter

Jim Martin wrote: »

Sorry, don't agree at all! If (IF) it was marketed properly, there could be a huge tourist visitor potential here as there is in other countries e.g. UK:

http://www.uksteam.info/tours/lem09.htm

There aren't the same number of steam train operators over here.

steamengine

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

That sounds like massive overkill to me tbh

And with the same Inter City single track layout, one would think with this amount of dosh swilling about, double tracking would be the priority

Sponge Bob

steamengine wrote: »

And with the same Inter City single track layout, one would think with this amount of dosh swilling about, double tracking would be the priority

It ain't a priority any more since IE quoted €180m to double track from Ceannt Station in Galway to Athenry. The track was double from Galway to Oranmore for many years and IE own all that land to this very day. The motorway bridge near Athenry was built for double track too as was the Oranmore dual carriageway overbridge...lest one ask.

dowlingm

I dunno, looking at the overheads it looks pretty encroached on in places.

As for bigger than Connolly, it's only going to have three platforms IIRC so the size is not going to be used for service.

As noted above, IE have bungled the redevelopment of Tara St/Limerick/Cork/Galway and now the big money making opportunities have passed.

KC61

Trying to look at this objectively as a customer, the one thing that I will say is that a new bus station is long overdue.

The current bus station at Ceannt Station is totally inadequate and a total mess. Passengers from trains cannot walk up/down the path due to the crowds trying to board buses. It is frankly an accident waiting to happen.

What the plan does entail is moving the bus station to the other side of the railway station to the former Bus Eireann bus depot site, which would offer a proper and a far bigger and safer bus station.

Whatever the whys/wherefores of the rest of the proposed development, this is something that I think is absolutely essential.