Who to vote for to massively improve public transport?

HobbitRing

So. I have gone on each and every political party's website and researched what they have to say about improving public transport, and to be honest have been shocked by how little anyone has to say. Many say absolutely nothing on the issue. Sin Fein have a report written on improving the energy efficiency of transport or something but nothing on improving reliability etc.

It's like we don't have an ongoing crisis that is crippling people's ability to go to work, school, appointments etc? The area I live in Dublin, about a quarter of services outright ghost you, nevermind everything else. TDs tell me they are aware of the problem, but have no power to improve anything.

The situation is so horrendous that I have become a single issue voter. This is the one and only issue I want to vote for, yet from my research absolutely no one is taking it seriously.

Hopefully I am missing something? Is there hope that any party will fight for us here?

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058332806/who-to-vote-for-to-massively-improve-public-transport

Probably the Green Party, though they have a slightly mixed history with public transport, but they are probably the most positive on it and the most likely to fight the motoring industry.

It be seriously worried that if Sinn Fein get into power that they might endanger some of the big ongoing projects like Metrolink and DART+. Particularly the firmer. Though given that it goes through areas that they get lots of votes from, it would be very stupid for them to touch it.

My ideal would be that the current government continue as overall they are a known quantity in this regard and some really big projects are happening under them.

Unfortunately there is really no single party with a great story.

The Mathematician

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658617#Comment_121658617

I agree that the current government would be the best, but I also think it is essential that the Greens are there to 'keep them honest'. I would certainly be worried about what a FF FG coalition would do on their own. The Greens seem to me to at least try to do what they say thay are going to do, the other parties seem much more liable to change policies if public opinion changes.

Wanderer78

sorry folks, but its clearly obvious, established parties such as ffg, are in serious trouble, theyve clearly catastrophically failed to meet critical needs, and now their time of governance is coming to an end, we ve no real clue where this is going, but as it stands, it doesnt look too good, its looking very likely we ll do what many other countries are currently doing, i.e. move towards the extremes, so expect more turmoil....

...what does this mean for public transport.....probably not so good things unfortunately....

...to answer the question, probably the greens, but they to are absolutely terrible in regards the matter...

...we clearly need to rapidly expand our rail network, but this probably wont happen anytime soon, if at all, so expect rising economic and social uncertainty...

...and if you think public transport is bad in dublin, maybe take a look at many rural parts of the country.....

gossamerfabric

Not the Greens. They are throwing money at unsustainable infrequent rural bus routes and diverting cash towards bike lanes when money should be spent elsewhere

I see one particular village where a low cost slip road should be built on to the existing bypass around the village so that a large volume of traffic from a particular direction doesn't even enter the village but there is no money for that and there is money for bike lane so bike lanes are being built and the trucks from the quarries and thousands of cars will still go through the village past the school and community centre.

It is maddening.

bike lane money is being used not where there is a need for bike lanes but as a means to tidy up verges and paths at the same time and bike lanes get built. That is the only pot of money for "improvements" that is available so the local council try to use it in ways to improve other infrastructure in so much as they can. Their hands are tied.

Vote for the party that promises increase in infrastructure spending without it being ring-fenced for the pursuit of the topics where the Green Party has a bee in its bonnet.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658862#Comment_121658862

none of the parties are willing to stick their necks out and opt for much larger, much more expensive, even riskier projects such as rail, so the process defaults to much simpler projects such as cycle lanes, we need such infrastructure, but we urgently need the expensive stuff to, but.....

The Mathematician

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658862#Comment_121658862

I'm not quite sure how this addresses the question of who to vote for if you want to massivily increase public transport? The only mention of public transport is where you say that infrequent rural bus routes are unsustainable.

SharkMX

Not the green party anyway. They have achieved nothing in the years they were in government. Well apart from taxing us all more.

gossamerfabric

See the first sentence. I will repeat it...Not the Greens. They've proven a willingness to divert scarce resources in to projects which deliver no meaningful improvement for the majority.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658954#Comment_121658954

...but the reality is, taxes are gonna have to rise anyway, in order for us to try get ourselves out of our current situations, its something we re gonna have to just accept.....

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658963#Comment_121658963

I repeat. Not the greens. They are more focused on making all aspects of our lives even more miserable in the hope of us all leading the miserable life they want us to change to.

Thelonious Monk

Greens definitely. Metro is on track to actually happen, bus connects routes have got planning permission lately, DART+ is happening, this is a lot of achievement given they've not been long in government and are very much a minority. FFFG ignored public transport for 100 years and people blame the Greens for the mess they inherited. Also much of the country can never be served by public transport due to people living in one off housing and not in towns and villages, and these voters tend to hate the Greens as nothing they stand for is relevant to them. But yes vote Green please!

The Mathematician

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658975#Comment_121658975

I don't understand, which policies on public transport are you referring to?

zell12

Green Party

It was #2 on their 2020 election manifesto. Four years on, they are actually following through on it even though they are a minority part

The Green Party says it will overhaul the transport system. It will secure 20% of the transport budget on cycling and walking projects and split the remainder 2:1 in favour of public transport over road building and maintenance. It will offer free public transport for students and a pilot €365 public transport annual pass modelled on the fare structure first introduced in Vienna in 2013. It will introduce a 'one tag' scheme for multi-leg journeys to allow users to take any number of trips in any direction on any form of local public transport for two hours after use of the Leap card. It will increase the priority of buses on roads which will include implementing priority traffic signalling for buses. 

The party wants wider footpaths in villages and cities, more zebra crossings, cycling parking and storage at rail and coach hubs. It is promising new wardens patrolling the streets fining for parking and dog fouling. The party will require all new urban buses to be 100% electric or low emission hybrid and wants increased train speeds on all inter-city rail routes to compete better with car journeys. It will also support development of a light rail system in Cork and Galway and review all derelict train lines around the country with a view to reopening them. The party wants all new public buildings to have EV charge points and says there should be charging stations at every service station

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658975#Comment_121658975

...and again....

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658873#Comment_121658873

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658990#Comment_121658990

Im going out on a limb here and say that neither of those projects will actually happen. At least not for another quarter century. How long has the metro been going now?

Tombo2001

Not directly related but somewhat - a significant factor for me at the last election was where each party stood on active travel, improving facilities and conditions around walking cycling etc.

I took a long look at what each candidate was saying and what each party was saying.

Most engaged on the issue was Social Democrats, then the Greens next. Only one party had absolutely nothing to say on the matter, that was Sinn Fein.

gossamerfabric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658963#Comment_121658963

Speak for yourself. The working poor are the ones paying meaningful amounts of income taxes and are at breaking point. The social welfare classes don't pay and the wealthy arrange their affairs to avoid taxes while gobbling up all the green grants that are offered by Government.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658992#Comment_121658992

Not talking about just public transport. Look up yourself what the greens have achieved both times they have been in power. Shouldnt take long.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659014#Comment_121659014

You may be right but they have more of a chance of happening with the Greens in government, in my opinion.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659028#Comment_121659028

Now thats a hail Mary :)

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658955#Comment_121658955

For 'majority' read 'people like me'

I'll be quite happy to vote Greens in the upcoming election, their local candidates are outstanding.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659019#Comment_121659019

...im speaking for all, taxes are going up, so get ready for it, there is no other way out of our current situations, none, again, taxes are going up, but hopefully we increase taxes on the accumulation of wealth, before we go for the usual suspects, i.e. income and consumption related taxes etc....

....again, get ready for it!

gossamerfabric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659047#Comment_121659047

Is this your "we all partied" pitch?

L1011

In Locals, you need to look at the individuals records rather than parties - there are individual councillors that are obstructive to anything despite being against their party lines.

Councillors have no real influence on provision of services but can get in the way; and do influence county and local development plans

If you're voting Independent, make sure that they are not going to vote for a lunatic in the Seanad election; Independent councillors are how we ended up with the nutters that are there.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659052#Comment_121659052

what party, where!

its clearly obvious most advanced economies, including ours, are currently in serious trouble, we have rapidly growing wealth inequality, which is now causing extremely serious social and economic instabilities, this in turn is causing a rapid rise in the support for the extremes, what is the norm, will simply not be very very soon, established parties are toast, for now anyway, ireland must to prepare for this upheaval thats currently occurring. this is clearly going to result in some form of sf government eventually, and then maybe some other form of extremism, so get ready!

The Mathematician

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659026#Comment_121659026

But this is a thread about who to vote for if you want public transport to be massively increased. Who do you think would be better than the Greens on this and why?

I would assume that the Greens were in favour of all the positive developments in public transport. To give just one example, for the first time ever we are heading towards a proper bus service in rural Ireland. I am sure this is life changing for some people, remember that even if a family own a car, it is not always available for everyone in that family.

ELM327

Not the greens, they will plant flower pots and fall asleep.

Can't imagine any of the current non government lot being able to fund any large PT initiatives given that they will already be putting the country into debt with their housing proposals.

We have a terrible public transport network in this country. I live in rural wexford and have no need for public transport however when I lived in 2 different major towns in meath there was no reliable PT links. If you live in Blanch and want to get to say Tallaght, there are no links that dont use An Lár and add hours.

What we do need is a proper orbital route outside the M50, add bus lane on the M50 and have park and ride off the m50 with parking at 5-10km intervals so that traffic passing through dublin going cross country can take the orbital route and those going into the city have a park and ride option. Then put a toll on cars driving inside the newly created M50 zone where there is reliable public transport.

We need a much better rail system. We have a worse rail system than we had 100 years ago.

All of the above cost money, how many people would be willing to take a tax increase to pay for it? Almost zero. Which is why current government and main opposition are not championing public transport

The Mathematician

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659120#Comment_121659120

You seem to be referring to times before the Greens were in power and are out of touch with the vast improvements that have recently been made. There is now a direct bus from Tallaght to Blanchardstown, the W4, which runs every 30 minutes off peak and every 15 minutes in peak hours. In terms of rural transport, see the following thread for all the latest improvements: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058215586/connecting-ireland-project-launched#latest

Although much more needs to be done, it is clearly wrong to say we have a worse rail system than we had 100 years ago. There are far less lines, but most of the ones that have closed down were very rural lines where trains are not competitive. The services on the lines that remain are far quicker and more frequent. Focused investment on these can result in a big improvement for a modest investment. Things that should be done are things like track doubling or even dynamic loops.

Larbre34

The plans to improve transport infrastructure, slowly, are already there. Nothing much is going to change beyond for it the next decade, no matter who is in Government.

If you want ambitious capital commitments, urban rail and what not, then vote FG.

The Greens will be almost totally eliminated after the three upcoming elections.

csirl

Cycle lanes are not public transport.

I dont believe we'll get what Dublin needs - a metro system anytime soon.

Note that the partial line that has been 'in delivery' for the past 20+ years and may never actually be built is not a metro system and will have little impact for 90% of Dublin residents.