Theoretical Cork Suburban/Commuter Lines

It's an excellent service. I couldn't possibly be more positive about it. I use it whenever possible, usually from Glounthaune and Little Island.

And in saying that, I don't think the platform swap in Little Island or Glounthaune are a good idea in the current station form.

Of the two, Little Island is more viable, as you could change platform by going up the N25 slip road and back down the old road, and back into the station from the other side. Whereas putting in a new platform overbridge in Glounthaune is a much bigger effort.

It should be interesting to see if they do go for that.

Again, my overall point was only that I'd have thought an easy platform change would be important in Kent for the "through" services.

This was discussed at length in another thread, possibly the thread relating to the Greenway.

To re-state some of the points raised:

Long distance between Midleton and Youghal: reasonably high cost line to deliver.

No significant population centres in Mogeely, Killeagh (or even Youghal itself): reasonably low ridership.

Some encroachment on the line: reasonably slow/legal effort to resolve.

Greenway architecture is light and easy to deliver: no issues with reinstating the rail line in future if needed.

My two cents: you could try to extend the line piecemeal by putting in a densely-zoned area and master plan in Mogeely, and extend to there first, but all the way to Youghal at once would not be good bang for buck right now. Better value to be had with East Cork commuter rail via new stations at Water Rock, Carrigtwohill West (IDA). Possibly if someone was being very adventurous and had lots of money to spend on East Cork rail, you could perhaps plan a P&R just East of the distillery, taking cars from both Dungourney and Castlemartyr directions.

I don't agree with you based on the distances and population centres concerned.

Definitely on - for instance - the Blackrock Passage greenway in Cork, sharing luas and Greenway makes sense but I think for the lesser density ones you mention then sharing space with the Greenway means the "luas" type system travels too slowly to be attractive to end users with long transit time between stops. For that slower "luas" type system I think you need more frequent stops. AKA a more urban area.

I'm totally in favour of greenway and commuter rail sharing a corridor side-by-side though. Although I believe Irish Rail are not in favour of it, lest they be "hemmed in".

It is a P&R but it's not heavily used really, probably because of the location.

With traffic, if you can drive to the Midleton P&R then you can normally afford to drive much further. You'd really like that Easternmost P&R to take in traffic from East Cork (Killeagh, Mogeely, Castlemartyr, Youghal) but for them to get to Midleton train station is a bit messy. They'd be most of the way to Glounthaune by the time they would be at Midleton train station. From Glounthaune you also get higher frequency of trains. So Midleton is not doing a great job as a P&R in practice. Glounthaune is actually very popular, I've often seen all parking spaces full, and roadside parking outside the station. In my experience a lot of those seem to drive from the East, like I describe. Little Island is also quite popular as a P&R and has a lot of available parking.

I'm not criticising Midleton station at all here, just that the P&R aspect isn't heavily used from what I've seen.

As I say, the best way I see to expand commuter rail towards Youghal would be incrementally via development of Mogeely. You avoid the encroachment locations, it has comparatively low costs of line and station, etc. But the low hanging fruit in East Cork is Water Rock, Carrigtwohill West and maybe soon Tivoli.

The Waterrock SHD was approved....... Edit: I think I'm wrong here: on the SHD approval, I think maybe only the transport infrastructure for development was approved, and that I conflated infrastructure and the housing in my head! The transport/water infrastructure is approved and funded in Waterrock. Work is theoretically underway, though I haven't seen anything on the ground. I see this area's development as being "real" and in the near future.

Tivoli seems to way off alright. Unfortunately.

Struggling to find it myself! I'm beginning to think I conflated the detailed plan and the LIHAF approval. But I remember reading specifically that "Phase 1 has the approval to go ahead", and the units that would entail etc. I remember because I was disappointed that rail would not be in place for Phase 1. I will keep looking here, but am beginning to doubt myself!

The Phase 1 is definitely the housing too, the infrastructure being done "now" is to allow Phase 1 to commence. Housing phases 2 and 3 will need further infrastructure. I don't know if the infrastructure was described in phases but rather "Projects". Sadly no sign of the railway station as a "project" yet.

You could be right about the length of time, I think the station won't happen until phase 2 at a minimum. But I see that as being "this decade". Tivoli, not so much.

If they want to turn LI into a major P&R site they need to expand the parking. Only around 80 spaces there at the moment. The original plans for Dunkettle P&R were for 400+ spaces.

I'm in favour of side-by-side also, but I was left scratching my head with what ended up being the design at some of the entry and exit points on the Cork greenway. In particular, the blackrock station. There is now a reinstated bridge from one side to another. However, from the platforms they have consumed more than half of the "track" area with ramps. 2 platforms have 2 sets of steps and 3 access ramps between them. The remaining greenway space between the platforms and ramps looks like a very narrow space now.

Very accessible for cyclists and pedestrians, but no space for future infra.

Just thinking that the new free flow to the city centre will send people east to go west anyway if they want to head into Tivoli so the Little Island station would become the natural place quickly?

Only way that'll happen is when they finally build a new line between Drogheda and Heuston via Dublin Airport and allow through services from Cork to Belfast via Heuston and Dublin Airport, so the existing Drogheda to Connolly line can be DART only and the Belfadt trains can move at a reasonable speed without getting stuck behind darts. But that's easily 3 or 4 bn euros and there's no political appetite for serious public transport spending yet.

Seeing as this is a theoretical thread - my god I'd love for the commuter rail network to expand up to Fermoy, maybe even Mitchelstown.

The amount of cars leaving this "corridor" in the morning to go to work in the city or Little Island is madness. Unfortunately, the bus service, the 245, is hourly, pretty unreliable, and very expensive.

I don't know, to be honest. I've attempted to get answers, I've written to a few TDs, to the Minister for Transport, to Bus Eireann, to NTA etc, no real solid replies. €14 return from Fermoy to Cork city centre. Madness.

They don't take LEAP cards, which is madness.

You're right that an online ticket is €11 return though, my bad. Thing is, that's still an outrageous price when you consider a return fare between Cork and Mallow is about half of that.