Cork developments

And the other one as the “South Douglas Road”. Or “Douglas Road South” in the posher parts.

Yes. Often heard that. I've probably even used it on occasion!

Drove by the Prism site there in the city on Friday. Its pretty much exactly as the last time I seen it a few weeks ago. There's not much happening?! Hope it hasn't been shelved. Wouldn't be surprised given the way things have changed last few weeks.

And unfortunately for them, if they don't like Penrose Dock, there's an approved development immediately to the West of Penrose Dock, another two blocks with virtually identical styling, though a floor shorter than Penrose Dock I believe. And if that's not enough, the new block of Horgan's Quay that's currently mid-construction is very, very similar in design to Penrose Dock too.

Agreed that the retail parks in Mahon, Little Island, or Carrigtwohill are the same as US strip malls (though I disagree that in the US they are single buildings because you often get clusters of those long buildings spread out over a huge area). But what I said was that Douglas *resembles* strip malls, and what I was driving at specifically is that when you look at Douglas Court, KFC, McDonalds, Ulster Bank, the East Village area, Aldi, and Circle C, you have all these buildings surrounded by conjoined or near-conjoined car parks. Look at that area with Google Maps in Satellite View and it really jumps out at you. The shopper’s options going from business to business are to walk through car parks or to drive. The experience reminds me of Portland OR and San Jose CA, places where I’ve spent a lot of time.

Its called the retro style of soviet architecture. On the positive side, its only half a glass box.

Can't speak to the funding, but the majority (>90%) of the apartments in the complex are 1 bedroom or studio apartments, with floor areas down to the minimum in the DoE planning guidelines, so the market value would be closer to €200k than 400k+. You'd also have to assume that Simon don't have a profit margin built-in as you'll find with a developer-led building.

Some images here.

I assume this is just phase one, the buildings along the riverfront. There's much more to come (~2,300 apartments in total).

3 storey development at Carmelite Place approved:

I don't mind the tall building but the low rise blocks are really bland and ugly to me, too.

Details of the 12 BusConnects corridors will be published later today.

Great help to Public Transport. It really is the city of cars

Iconic taking up a floor in NSQ2 while Clarendon hint that appartments at Horgan's quay may not go ahead due to rising costs:

not really a great idea, those are still public transport just not government owned. stupid to move them from where they were

All for a cycle lane?

I wonder however did I manage without cycle lane on that street for years? Maybe I'm due a payment for all the trauma involved.

Bus station would be a better option. Patricks Quay was a terrible location for a coach stop. Narrow footpath, no shelter, waiting passengers blocking the footpath with luggage, danger of falling into the river etc. Not to mention the fact that buses would immediately get stuck in traffic trying to get through Maccurtain Street.

Omg I've lost count of all the times I've fallen into the river while waiting for a bus on Patrick's Quay.

I've never taken a BE Dublin bound bus but wouldnt they have to negotiate McCurtain street as well??

The constituents of CIE can barely coordinate with each other, let alone with private operators. Welcome to Ireland, enjoy your stay.

Equally to maintain a second regular lane, and a continuous lane of parking which doesn't seem to have been considered at all.

Evening Echo has a little more information

"The plans will see West Cork Connects move to Anderson Quay, Aircoach to Lower Glanmire Street while Cobh Connects is to remain at a single bus bay to be kept along Patrick’s Quay."

No mention of where Citylink, M9 Express and other operators will end up.

West Cork Connects director says their schedule is designed so that their buses come in to sync up with the Aircoach to Dublin. Now with their buses landing on Anderson Quay, and Aircoach departing from Lower Glanmire Street (Road?), he asserts it will be a nuisance for passengers and is suggesting they won't launch their planned Kinsale route as a result.

Frequent user of the Citylink to head back to Galway. St Patrick's Quay was always annoying to navigate through, especially when you had a bunch of luggage, particularly when there's a group trying to board a bus and they decide to take up the entire width of the foot path.

On the return, it was generally ok as it has been walking distance from where I have lived in Cork over the years. Moving buses out to Lower Glanmire Road or similar will probably mean we would need a taxi to get out there and back (especially with luggage) which just adds cost.

The actual pavement is lethal, too. The amount of times I've almost tripped is uncountable. A friend visited in Cork, tripped and face planted onto the pavement within minutes of arrival.

Galway's private bus station seemed to work well, until the operators jacked up prices and now there's a dispute with the bus operators and they're not using the station (not sure if this has since been resolved).

I know when works were being done on St Patrick's Quay, the buses were relocated to Alfred Street. Google Maps suggests a bunch of bus bays still there, plus car parking spaces.

Exactly. It's the plaza with the TFI Bikes docking station, next to Moody's and the Leisureplex.

Honestly, I can't understand any of the caterwauling about this change. Patrick's Quay is a dump of a bus stop, unsafe, and a traffic nightmare. All of the new alternative locations at least have a dedicated bus bay and a shelter, so passengers at least have a chance of staying dry while waiting in inclement weather.

As for transfer passengers, seriously? How many people actually transfer between bus services? I can't imagine it being that many. Most of these services are point-to-point operators who never once before bothered about connecting passengers. To wheel out that excuse now is just lazy in my eyes.

Problem is that BÉ own the bus station and pay for its upkeep and receive no subsidy explicitly for that purpose. If you allow private operators to use the bus station (a fine idea) then somebody needs to be responsible for the station. BÉ would have no incentive to facilitate their direct competitors. The correct solution of course is the same solution for privatisation everywhere: the government should own the network (stations, stops, timetable, potentially the buses), the private operator should own the supplied asset (drivers, potentially the buses).

It's the same reason the bus and train aren't integrated in Cork: bus competes with train. It's terrible for the end user.