Step back in time

Slidey

Interesting clip from yesteryear.

A lot of changes since these days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARsZmMZxdL8

corktina

black exhaust smoke....you don't see that anymore!

carchaeologist

Some difference to driving that route now.

Anan1

Amazing, the spokesman for Larne port was nervous about even admitting that he was courting Southern business.

kev1.3s

there has been fantastic progress made since then, now there would be feck all in the way of delays but you would be crippled with the cost of the diesel and tolls.

unkel

Spot the bit of 4 lane (each way) motorway in the North? Back then there was no motorway at all in the South :eek:

Basil Fawlty

Teenagers today wouldnt believe how backwards this country was until the early 90s.

unkel

ciarancapri wrote: »

Teenagers today wouldnt believe how backwards this country was until the early 90s.

And the main infrastructure has only really matured in the last 6-7 years...

no1beemerfan

ciarancapri wrote: »

Teenagers today wouldnt believe how backwards this country was until the early 90s.

I worked with my Uncle in '94 and '96. He lives in Sligo and every saturday we used to go to Fivemiletown and beyond in the North and every saturday the truck would have to stop at the border and checkpoints along the way.

I was in Belfast for a few days recently and its unreal how things have changed, from a security point to the road network point.

carchaeologist

unkel wrote: »

And the main infrastructure has only really matured in the last 6-7 years...

And even then there's a bit to go yet...

Big Nasty

unkel wrote: »

Spot the bit of 4 lane (each way) motorway in the North? Back then there was no motorway at all in the South :eek:

Our first motorway was the '50 which is only open since, what, '95? To be fair our road network is now better than norn iron.

road_high

When the Customs post dissappear altogether from the Border? Early 90s or so? Hard to believe it was quicker back then for a truck to drive north and onto Scotland to get to the continent (100s of miles in the wrong direction :eek:) than wait for a connection at Dublin or Rosslare.

carchaeologist

mfitzy wrote: »

When the Customs post dissappear altogether from the Border? Early 90s or so? Hard to believe it was quicker back then for a truck to drive north and onto Scotland to get to the continent (100s of miles in the wrong direction :eek:) than wait for a connection at Dublin or Rosslare.

And not only that, to go through all that hassle too.

bijapos

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Our first motorway was the '50 which is only open since, what, '95? To be fair our road network is now better than norn iron.

I think it was the Naas bypass opened sometime around 1986. Not bad you think especially when it connected up to the Naas dual carraigeway to give you a nice long run into Dublin. Except for the fact that some twat in their wisdom decided to put a traffic light at the point where the motorway and dual carraigeway meet. I was 15 and could see it was wrong. Drove around Europe for 10 years and never saw such a piece of blatant short sighted road planning as this.

Or at least not until I saw the traffic lights at every junction on the M50.

mfitzy wrote: »

Hard to believe it was quicker back then for a truck to drive north and onto Scotland to get to the continent (100s of miles in the wrong direction :eek:) than wait for a connection at Dublin or Rosslare.

I think a lot of them headed for Newcastle (about 160 miles from Stranraer IIRC) or Hull to get to Rotterdam or Hamburg so it probably saved them time even if the Holyhead route was more frequent anyway. Mad to see him going for 14 days to Poland, some trip 30 years ago.

kev1.3s

corktina wrote: »

black exhaust smoke....you don't see that anymore!

You obviously haven't driven behind my 320d recently

Saab Ed

ciarancapri wrote: »

Teenagers today wouldnt believe how backwards this country was until the early 90s.

Was!!!

road_high

The old N1 is a sight as well. Looks like a quite R road rather than a national route

Sam Russell

I think you should take into account that the NI motorway system was never extended towards Dublin, but to the north and west of Belfast. I think the local politics had some effect on which regions got the public money and the publicly funded jobs. The motorway in the north were always empty as they were a total waste and built as vanity projects to suit the ruling party.

Also the main road network in Ireland was mainly what I would call broad highways (one wide lane in each direction with a wide hard shoulder on both sides) which suited the low density of traffic and the mix of tractor, lorry and private cars. It was cheap to build, maintain and improve. When we had to pay for it, that was quite adequate.

The road from Dublin to Limerick hardly changed from the sixties to the nineties. On the otherhand, the route from Dublin to Galway was woeful until the ninties, and then improved every year. Now it is motorway most of the way with a bit of non-motorway at the Athlone bypass, and two tolls.

Of course, tolls are recent ways to transfer our money to the private pockets of the investor, despite the government paying the lions share of the cost of the construction. The West-Link bridge cost £10 million to build and was bought out for €500 million.

It's not all progress.

road_high

Sam Russell wrote: »

I think you should take into account that the NI motorway system was never extended towards Dublin, but to the north and west of Belfast. I think the local politics had some effect on which regions got the public money and the publicly funded jobs. The motorway in the north were always empty as they were a total waste and built as vanity projects to suit the ruling party.

Also the main road network in Ireland was mainly what I would call broad highways (one wide lane in each direction with a wide hard shoulder on both sides) which suited the low density of traffic and the mix of tractor, lorry and private cars. It was cheap to build, maintain and improve. When we had to pay for it, that was quite adequate.

The road from Dublin to Limerick hardly changed from the sixties to the nineties. On the otherhand, the route from Dublin to Galway was woeful until the ninties, and then improved every year. Now it is motorway most of the way with a bit of non-motorway at the Athlone bypass, and two tolls.

Of course, tolls are recent ways to transfer our money to the private pockets of the investor, despite the government paying the lions share of the cost of the construction. The West-Link bridge cost £10 million to build and was bought out for €500 million.

It's not all progress.

That's very interesting what you say re the A1 in N Ireland to Dublin via Newry. I still think it's not a great road from North of Newry to where it meets the M1 to Belfast. I couldn't get over the amount of frankly dangerous crossing points on this dual carriageway. I saw a jeep and cattlebox barely make it across on it recently. At least souuth of the border it is proper M way with high quality grade seperated junctions. Surface and signage decent enough but was even sure of the default speed limit . Is it 60 mph or 70 mph (on all dual carriageways) in the UK?
Read somewhere before that the few bits of Motorway in N Ireland were developed to serve Unionist areas and not directly serve Derry or Dublin (where more people live/lived)!