Bus stops at cathedral

Little My

They are marked as tour bus only - but tour buses don't park on that side, and tour bus passengers don't need shelters as the bus sits there and waits for them. Anyone have any idea what the rational was??

antoobrien

Little My wrote: »

They are marked as tour bus only - but tour buses don't park on that side, and tour bus passengers don't need shelters as the bus sits there and waits for them. Anyone have any idea what the rational was??

AFAIK they are drop off/pick up points rather than coach parking, so the shelters may be needed if the bus is late or somebody is early and it's been raining (rain being not exactly uncommon).

Little My

OK fair enough, kinda.... Has anyone seen any tour buses using them?

antoobrien

Little My wrote: »

OK fair enough, kinda.... Has anyone seen any tour buses using them?

Plenty of times.

Storm 10

A lot of tour buses there last Friday, large crowd coming out of the Cathederal so its well used by tour buses.

irisheddie85

they are used by tour buses when there is no room left the other side of the cathedral.
I thought I read on a thread here a while back there was a plan to move some of the city bus terminus to the cathedral around the time the shelters were built. On my phone now so can't find the thread/link. Obviously this never happened.

Mrs OBumble

irisheddie85 wrote: »

they are used by tour buses when there is no room left the other side of the cathedral.
I thought I read on a thread here a while back there was a plan to move some of the city bus terminus to the cathedral around the time the shelters were built. On my phone now so can't find the thread/link. Obviously this never happened.

Correct.

I believe (no links to prove it) that the NTA said to them "are ye mad? Salmon Weir bridge can't cope with the load as is, and now you want to take every city bus over it too? Get out of here ... " but unfortunately not 'til after the coucil had wasted four shelters there!

Antifa161

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Correct.

I believe (no links to prove it) that the NTA said to them "are ye mad? Salmon Weir bridge can't cope with the load as is, and now you want to take every city bus over it too? Get out of here ... " but unfortunately not 'til after the coucil had wasted four shelters there!

I think it's fairly mad that the Salmon Weir bridge hasn't had any work done to widen either the road or pavements. Maybe even a separate pedestrian bridge and take the pavements out.

antoobrien

irisheddie85 wrote: »

I thought I read on a thread here a while back there was a plan to move some of the city bus terminus to the cathedral around the time the shelters were built. On my phone now so can't find the thread/link. Obviously this never happened.

It was part of the city's council rather fanciful (and misleading) smarter travel submission (it was actually nothing short of a misguided money grab, they went for more than was in the pot).

The details should be still on the city council website.

gordongekko

Antifa161 wrote: »

I think it's fairly mad that the Salmon Weir bridge hasn't had any work done to widen either the road or pavements. Maybe even a separate pedestrian bridge and take the pavements out.

there are plans to turn it into a pedestrain bridge and build a new bridge near it.

jkforde

gordongekko wrote: »

there are plans to turn it into a pedestrain bridge and build a new bridge near it.

yeah, the council thought about tacking on a pedestrian bridge on to the side of Salmon Weir but these fellas submitted a much better idea... http://www.cfarchitects.ie/communities/9/004/007/982/479/images/4590787741.jpg
when's the City Development Plan up for consultation again??

Eeden

I always understood that there were differing issues with various waterways/fisheries organisations, and also the usual planning difficulties?

I'm pretty sure a solution was almost agreed upon, but something (some objection) halted it in its tracks. So now more studies will have to be done, more money spent on further reports and therefore many more years to wait until a solution is even imagined.

slideshow bob

Little My wrote: »

They are marked as tour bus only - but tour buses don't park on that side, and tour bus passengers don't need shelters as the bus sits there and waits for them. Anyone have any idea what the rational was??

I think this goes back to the plan Galway Smater Travel and Bus Eireann had to have all East-bound services terminate at the Cathedral and all West Bound service terminate at Eyre Square. Cross-city bus users were expected to walk from one terminus to the other. It was to avoid timetable delays due to city centre congestion for cross-city services.

The existing bus network will be redesigned with a combination of city and commuter services. A radial network pattern will be in place with a new orbital service, thereby eliminating the current cross-city routing.

From http://www.galwaycity.ie/SmarterTravel/GMSTA_01.pdf

As I heard it, the NTA told them they were nuts and refused permission to sanction those changes and sent them back for a better plan which they duly did. The new services came into effect in March 2012 (press release readily available from NTA, Galway City and Bus Eireann websites). These include revised cross-city services.

But the terminus at the Cathedral got terminated.

what_traffic

Little My wrote: »

They are marked as tour bus only - but tour buses don't park on that side, and tour bus passengers don't need shelters as the bus sits there and waits for them. Anyone have any idea what the rational was??

It was built after the idea put forth in the "Galway Bus Study 2007"
It was not implemented in full(as you have observed yourself)
More reading here
http://www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices/RoadsandTraffic/StudiesandSchemes/GalwayStrategicBusStudy2007/