Belfast Rapid Transit

Sheldons Brain

Bus "Rapid" Transit in Belfast to proceed with two main routes: Newtownards Road and Falls/Andersonstown.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27461289

Fine so far, but will the required steps be taken to make it work?

Judgement Day

You can paint it so that it looks like a train but it's still a grotty old bus.

Banjoxed

Greenway campaigners and Sustrans successfully killed off any chance of using the old Belfast and County Down Railway mainline as part of any rapid transit proposals in Belfast.

Source: http://irishrailwaydevelopments.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/107/

end of the road

Banjoxed wrote: »

Greenway campaigners and Sustrans successfully killed off any chance of using the old Belfast and County Down Railway mainline as part of any rapid transit proposals in Belfast.

Source: http://irishrailwaydevelopments.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/107/

Greenway campaigners and Sustrans should have had no say over it, the NI assembly should have just gone in and taken the land and if needed be banned Sustrans from using anymore land within NI if they didn't co-opperate, network rail should do the same if they need to take back a former rail route.

monument

end of the road wrote: »

Greenway campaigners and Sustrans should have had no say over it, the NI assembly should have just gone in and taken the land and if needed be banned Sustrans from using anymore land within NI if they didn't co-opperate, network rail should do the same if they need to take back a former rail route.

It will not be used for BRT because people did not want it and people told their politicians this, and the politicians took note.

AngryLips

monument wrote: »

It will not be used for BRT because people did not want it and people told their politicians this, and the politicians took note.

You could've said the same about Luas before it was built but no one is saying that now.

Will this BRT be fully grade separated?

monument

AngryLips wrote: »

You could've said the same about Luas before it was built but no one is saying that now.

Will this BRT be fully grade separated?

That's about as good as saying that could say the same about the River Liffey before we build a motorway on it.

I think you'll find that overall you can't say that people did not want Luas and you can't say that politicians took note on any level comparable to the Belfast greenway/BRT argument.

cgcsb

AngryLips wrote: »

You could've said the same about Luas before it was built but no one is saying that now.

Will this BRT be fully grade separated?

no the BRT will be like a Dublin QBC with bays for buses to overtake at stops and the unbroken white line will be taken all the way up to the junction.

AngryLips

monument wrote: »

I think you'll find that overall you can't say that people did not want Luas and you can't say that politicians took note on any level comparable to the Belfast greenway/BRT argument.

Do you not remember the massive controversy surrounding Luas before and during the construction phase? It was a topic of national debate throughout that period and the whole country, you included, seems to be suffering from collective amnesia to say that the opposition to it was non existent

monument

AngryLips wrote: »

Do you not remember the massive controversy surrounding Luas before and during the construction phase? It was a topic of national debate throughout that period and the whole country, you included, seems to be suffering from collective amnesia to say that the opposition to it was non existent

No, what I'm saying is that a few people (even with strong media reach) mostly giving out after plans are in place and who never got notable support from politicians, is not the same as what happened in Belfast.

The mass hysteria with Luas built up story after story in the media.

In Belfast there was little sign of mass hysteria -- it was a choice people made and that choice was that they wanted to keep their greenway.

Cool Mo D

monument wrote: »

No, what I'm saying is that a few people (even with strong media reach) mostly giving out after plans are in place and who never got notable support from politicians, is not the same as what happened in Belfast.

There was HUGE support from politicians - articles written in newspapers, Garret Fitzgerald out measuring Dawson Street, to the extent that the originally planned link up of the two lines was cancelled for fear of the consequences.

This article sums up the attitute fairly well http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/on-the-lunacy-of-luas-25932019.html - even the transport minister at the time was pretty lukewarm.

monument

Cool Mo D wrote: »

There was HUGE support from politicians - articles written in newspapers, Garret Fitzgerald out measuring Dawson Street, to the extent that the originally planned link up of the two lines was cancelled for fear of the consequences.

This article sums up the attitute fairly well http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/on-the-lunacy-of-luas-25932019.html - even the transport minister at the time was pretty lukewarm.

Only AFTER construction started.

As that article says:

"To those of us who have been aware of the lunacy of Luas from the very beginning, it has been fascinating in recent months to see how it's become acceptable in politically correct circles to be sceptical about Luas or even to be anti-Luas altogether."

"Everyone is a Luas sceptic these days - even those media gurus who were zealous supporters of Luas in the beginning can now be heard regaling each other with the latest Luas horror stories."

monument wrote: »

The mass hysteria with Luas built up story after story in the media.

As above quoted from by last post.

The Luas mass hysteria only ramped up with disruption due to construction stories pushing it.

The anti-rail or anti-public transport did not have much of an impact before that. Stopping the lines joining was 70-80%+ down CIE.