Cork - Light Rail [route options idenfication and initial design underway]

That's the old American definition, but in general it is fair to say that it is a far looser one nowadays, with most new tram systems being viewed as either light rail or a subset of it.

LUAS is a tram but is also viewed as light rail.

There's no advantage to converting the line to Midleton and Cobh to light rail. It would cost a lot of money and much easier to electricity those existing lines and have a seamless transfer to the Cork Luas at Kent.

Midleton is getting double tracked and electrified in the future anyway .. along with several new stations , and some of the stations currently have a "step up "to the train , there's also going to be issues at the level crossing in midleton town when the up the frequency , the barriers are down for 20 mins an hour at peak times , doubling the service will bring that to 40 mins ( at peak ) ,

There's also the issue of "seamless changes at Kent " people are happy to change , but there is resistance to multiple changes - very few journey's end at Kent station , so if you were traveling from .dunkettle or Tivoli , you'd have to change at Kent just to get to the city centre , and have to change again if you were going to towards kinsale road , or mahon or Douglas , or anywhere else really ..

Nah. Its too slow and it goes too far for a tram.

It'll work better in a small city like Cork, but Dublin was sold a pup.

The line proposed in Cork is not far off the length of the red line actually. It'll be interesting to see how the navigate the MTU/Btown/CUH/Victoria Cross/UCC section. That seems like it'll cause design issues.

I’m not sure I’d agree. The only section that’s essentially greenfield is the piece between Ballincollig east and MTU. The rest is solid concrete. The line is obviously available from east of the city centre to Mahon but the section I mentioned above will be difficult. Although I have seen the preliminary map since and it seems to suggest that it’ll run behind the hospital so that might make it a little easier.

I think Cork should have 3-4 of these lines but the reality is Dublin doesn't even have that.

Unfortunately both these cities are run by a state with a terrible urban planning record.

€1.37m spent so far on Cork Luas project; Calls for 'firm explainer of proposed route' 

24/10/22

The costs to date “are associated with the fees for the development of route option selection and feasibility studies including transport modelling, environmental assessment, engineering design and associated surveys”.

MORE than €1.37m has been spent so far on costs associated with the Cork Luas project, as the wait continues for the emerging preferred route to be announced.

A breakdown of the money spent from 2020 up to this month was provided to Labour Party TD for Cork East, Seán Sherlock by the deputy chief executive of the National Transport Authority (NTA), Hugh Creegan.

Mr Creegan stated that, following the completion of the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (CMATS), which identified an east-west light rail line as a key element of the future transport network, the NTA instructed Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) “to commence the development of the route option selection and feasibility study phase of the Cork Light Rail Project/Cork Luas”.

The project commenced in October 2020, he said. That year, €77,077 was spent, followed by an additional spend of just over €571,500 in 2021 and a spend of slightly over €726,369 this year up to October 6. It brings the total amount spent on the project so far to just over €1,374,946. 

Mr Creegan explained that the costs to date “are associated with the fees for the development of route option selection and feasibility studies including transport modelling, environmental assessment, engineering design and associated surveys”.

Parliamentary question

The information was provided to Mr Sherlock after a parliamentary question he submitted to the minister for transport regarding the money spent to date on the project was referred to the NTA.

Commenting on the figures, Labour local area rep Peter Horgan called for more clarity on the light rail project.

“That’s a lot of money to have spent on the light rail project,” he told The Echo.

“What we need now is a firm explainer of the proposed route, the total cost of the project, and timelines for when it could be operational.

“We need to know if this is going to be an achievable public transport project that serves the whole city.

“It would be evident that more park-and-rides are a necessity for such a light rail project.”

In August 2020, Jacobs Engineering Ireland was awarded the contract to undertake a route options analysis and develop initial designs for the proposed Luas Light Rail Transit (LRT) system which will run from Ballincollig, on the western outskirts of the city, to Mahon Point in the east.

The 17km east-west Luas-style system is one of the biggest elements of the CMATS plan.

The proposed scheme will provide a high-capacity, high-frequency public transport link and will serve destinations including Munster Technological University, Cork University Hospital, University College Cork, Cork City Centre, Kent Station/Cork North Docklands, and Cork South Docklands.

Speaking back in April, Mr Creegan told The Echo that it would be later this year, “probably towards the end of the year”, before there would be an emerging preferred alignment determined that would be available for release.

This is going to be a tough one to route between the city centre and Mahon Point. The Bishopstown area also poses challenges. Easiest route would be to follow the old railway line where the current greenway is presently. Docklands aside, this route avoids many of the residential areas in this area of the city; possibly too many for it to be effective.

More on street running may be necessary, possibly using parts of Boreenmanna Rd., Beaumont Quarry, Beaumont Drive, Church R., Skehard rd, Ringmahon Rd., then looping down to Mahon Point and returning on the R852. This would mean much repurposing of road space, but less disruption to existing buildings. The big advantage is it brings a much larger population access to the system. Getting from Boreenmanna Rd. to the docklands is going to be tricky though. It could be possible to cut through SMA lands to Blackrock Rd. and onto the docklands from there. This would require some demolition of buildings, which in the greater scheme of things is relatively minor, but would inevitably lead to uproar.

It's going to be far far more disruptive than anything Bus Connects has thrown up to date. Can easily see the motor industry/I don't want to lose half my front garden lobby declaring war on planners and city council. I can understand why it's cost 1.37m to date.

We'll be doing very very well if we end up getting one line by 2040. Carrigaline for a rail line is a non-runner for at least 50 years.

Navan, Swords and Letterkenny would claim that title before carrigaline

Having rail planned in this country is fairly worthless. The last 3 GDA transport strategies have been the same but worded differently because none of it has been built.

There was an article in the Echo before Christmas where the NTA were quoted as saying it would be early Q2, so April at the earliest.