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Limerick transport and travel projects

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Comments

  • Posts: 596 [Deleted User]


    No, because there quite simply isn't a motorway from Limerick to Shannon. There will never be any public transport to Shannon from the Raheen side of town that doesn't use the R445 or similar alignment in the case of a train, so if you don't use the R445 at present, you'd have to go to town first before you catch the magic train adding even more time to your journey. Public transport from Raheen to Shannon just isn't viable.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,232 ✭✭✭waterwelly



    What are you being so silly for?

    The speed limit for buses is 100km/h so whether it's called a motorway or dual carraigeway buses will still get to Shannon in the same transit time.

    A time that will always be faster than a train journey that starts off in the direction of Waterford for about 2 miles then goes in a big meandering route.

    Regarding Raheen, a bus from Mallow, Charleville, Croom, Mungret etc. to Shannon would be far more useful than a slow train.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,931 ✭✭✭Poxyshamrock


    The Limerick to Galway service is bursting at the seams these days. It’s nearly always standing room only so the rhetoric that’s been pushed about for the last 10 years is fairly outdated at this stage.


    The numbers would no doubt grow even more if the services on the line were a) faster and b) more frequent.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,931 ✭✭✭Poxyshamrock


    Counted dwell time at Sixmilebridge this evening out of curiosity. 46 seconds in total.



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 12,828 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    The final draft of the LSMATS has been published.

    After a quick glance, the main take out I can see related to the above discussion is that outside of the Ennis line, no other commuter services (ie the Foynes line) will be opened pre 2040 as the population density is too low. Moyross station will be built (which we already know) and they may add a station at the Parkway in the future. Ennis services should be 3 an hour (can't see that happening tbh).

    A Shannon spur is aspirational, but it's not in the current plan.

    They say that a new station with park and ride should be built at Ballysimon where the Dublin line crosses the N24 and that the line to the junction should be double tracked.

    Bus wise they propose removing all private car traffic from O'Connell St and Sarsfield bridge, turning each into a two way bus corridor. I honestly don't see how this works without the NRR, but Ryan personally had that removed from the plan. Hopefully it gets revisited in two years time when he's out of office.



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  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 12,828 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    After a bit of further reading, they're proposing bus park and rides at M7: Newport Roundabout, M20/N21: Raheen, N18: Ennis Road and ƒN24: Ballysimon (rail and bus). I'm delighted with this as I been calling for it for years.

    They're proposing a 10 minute frequency on the Raheen to UL via city center route and a 15 minute frequency on other routes. They'll need a lot more busses and drivers along with physical route improvements to get anywhere near that.

    They're also fully behind the delivery of the M20 and the Limerick to Foynes road.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,566 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Its a good plan in regards to buses but will tough to implement.

    Upgrading what is currently the 306 to 15mins will be great if they are also intelligent enough to put stops at the 2 hospitals neither of which have a stop on the inbound side.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,357 ✭✭✭pigtown


    Some points of interest-

    It's intended to entirely remove private cars from Sarsfield Bridge and provide high quality cycling infrastructure alongside bus lanes, it's also intended to make the cycle lane on the Shannon Bridge permanent, as well as build a new pedestrian and cycle bridge between the two.


    Both O'Connell Street and Sarsfield Bridge projected to facilitate 3 buses every 2 minutes as two way bus corridors.


    New train stations at Moyross and Ballysimon. 2 trains per hour on the Nenagh line, 3 per hour on the Ennis line.


    Pedestrian bridge on Thomond Weir.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,837 ✭✭✭✭phog


    Dream big, deliver small

    Without completing the LNDR most of this won't happen.



  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I posted this on another forum and thought it might be of interest it, its my (very high level) review of the LSMATS, note I don't go down to the level of specific projects

    The full document is available at

    Summary

    The core measures are

    • Improved frequency of public transport services to regeneration areas;
    • The provision of safe and secure cycling facilities;
    • The provision of pedestrian linkages to surrounding areas;
    • Public realm improvements;
    • Reducing the need to own a car and car dominance
    • and Managing the movement of Heavy Goods Vehicles

    Current mode share breaks down as follows with the planned shares listed also

    • Public transport - 4% grow to 13%
    • Walking - 23% grow to 33%
    • Cycling - 3% grow to 10-15%
    • Car - 70% reduce to 41%

    The mode share %'s for PT and cars are not called out the same way so its hard to say what the post implementation % is aimed to be e.g. for bus it states "156% increase in AM peak bus passengers between 2016 & 2040". There are also totals for each of the above called out in various sections which conflict so the %'s are a bit of a mess to be honest but the overall picture is clear regardless of which source in the doc you pick, cars are getting squeezed out and sustainable modes are getting prioritised.

    Walking

    • Priority at junctions
    • Increased permeability
    • Improved accessibility measures in line with universal access standards
    • Multiple audits of areas over the lifetime of the strategy to identify further opportunities for improvement
    User: "image.png"

    Cycling

    • Bike lane network consisting of primary, secondary and feeder lanes with quality & safety level decreasing the further you move off primary
    • Expanded bike share scheme
    • Priority at traffic signals
    • Increase in parking provision
    • Inter-urban and greenway networks completed
    User: "image.png"

    Public Transport

    Bus

    • 4 P&R locations proposed(Ennis rd, M20 raheen, N24 Ballysimon & M7 Mackey)
    • Bus connects
    • Roll out priority measures at multiple junctions
    • Higher frequency
    • More routes
    User: "image.png"

    Rail

    • Dual tracking between colbert & limerick junction
    • upgrade Ballycar line
    • Improve commuter rail
    • New stations at Moyross and Ballysimon
    • Increase frequency
    • Upgrade existing stations
    User: "image.png"

    Cars

    In terms of demand management for cars, theres a lot planned

    • New developments, removal of parking requirements for near city and significantly reduced requirements for parking provision in suburbs
    • Maximum parking provision will be applied in future
    • Undeveloped residential on well served routes must be high density with low parking provision
    • car-free area within 800m of Limerick city center
    • A steady reduction in on-street parking until it is no longer provided (with a few exceptions e.g. blue badge spaces)
    • Increase parking costs
    • Increase costs of parking permits
    • Alternatives to car ownership e.g. bike share, car clubs, bike storage, PT provision, P&R's
    • Traffic signal optimization towards walking, cycling & PT and lower priority for main car lanes
    • If the above does not lead to a significant modal shift congestion charges will be brought in to further discourage the use of cars in the city
    User: "image.png"

    One of the main drivers behind the measures planned is the strategy is now required to meet the national emissions reduction target of 50% emissions by 2030. The document as it stands states it can achieve a 35% reduction. It lists 3 options to achieve the last 15%

    • Increase fuel prices to discourage the use of petrol/diesel
      • Ruled out as not feasible as it is controlled at a national level
    • Increase the amount of emission free vehicles (cars & LGV & HGV) to include battery and hydrogen
      • Possible to do by working with the likes of delivery stakeholders and setting up hubs for last mile low emission delivery modes
      • Not likely to achieve the desired reduction though
    • Implement a congestion charge/low emission zone/tolls
      • A feasible option which can significantly reduce the volume of emissions
      • Not for implementation, yet, but not ruled out for later application

    More Pretty Pictures

    User: "image.png" User: "image.png"

    There's loads I haven't covered and its about 150 pages long so feel free to waste a morning going through it yourselves



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 354 ✭✭apc


    What forum did you post this to? Would have thought it was only here and skyscrapercity that this could be relevant to



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,357 ✭✭✭pigtown


    A consultation on the proposed active travel scheme linking Colbert Station to the Park Canal will be held in the UL city campus on Wednesday 26th.

    Will be available to view online that day too

    https://www.innovision.ie/wickham2clarest



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 12,828 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    Will be interesting to see the proposals for this. The Leader have this image, which to me looks like the corner of Wickham St and Upper Gerald Griffin St.

    Untitled Image

    I've said before that I'd love to see Wickham Street closed to traffic, but unfortunately that doesn't look like the plan. Roll on next Wednesday when all is revealed.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,357 ✭✭✭pigtown


    I read somewhere that it's proposed to close a section of High Street to traffic which would be welcome.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 785 ✭✭✭LeoD


    We'll have to see the wider plan but I think you could drastically reduce the motor traffic volumes on Wickham St if you removed through traffic routes between William St and Parnell St but still allowed local traffic access for the businesses around here (filtering & local one way systems). That section of Wickham St in the image above I'd have as a one way exit onto Lwr Gerald Griffin St/Parnell St. Lwr Gerald Griffin St becomes 2 way again.

    image.png




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭Vanquished


    The image from the Council indicates a reversal of traffic flow on Wickham Street from Thomas Street to the junction with Gerald Griffin Street. It also looks like access from Parnell Street, Gerald Griffin and Sexton Street to Wickham Street is being extinguished. This would all suggest that the section of Wickham Street to William Street could be pedestrianised to accommodate a bi-directional cycle lane towards High Street and the canal.

    Realistically there is no value in keeping any traffic on Wickham Street as the access provided is duplicated elsewhere. I imagine they're only doing it to placate the owners of that ugly surface car park at the top of Thomas Street. Although access to this can easily be facilitated via Roches Street, Anne Street and Thomas Street. You could then close the section of Thomas Street between Catherine Street and Anne Street to traffic (in addition to the obvious pedestrianisation of the stretch between Little William Street and Little Catherine Street). That also means that there would be little impediment to closing the portion of Catherine Street from Roches Street to Thomas Street to traffic also. Except of course for Limerick Council's devastating lack of ambition and vision. It would create a nice little pedestrianised cluster though.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,357 ✭✭✭pigtown


    The council have chosen the direct (yellow) route for the Colbert-Canal cycle link, through Wickham Street and High Street. There's a final public consultation next week on it.

    https://www.limerick.ie/council/newsroom/news/route-to-proceed-to-statutory-planning-process-for-wickham-st-to-clare-st



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭Vanquished


    It's pretty astonishing that the Council had to go to the bother of procuring a consultancy to undertake such an extensive data gathering exercise. Just to placate the usual band of intellectually challenged business owners and Councillors, determinined to keep the city mired in mediocrity.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,566 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    The difference in perception between consumer and business owner is stark.

    Given that the majority of their own customers are in favour only reinforces my belief that all business owners are really concerned about is the ability to get their own car close to the door. You see it quite often on little Catherine St. and Foxes Bow with business owners ruining the aesthetic and tranquility that is a huge driver for their business by driving and parking on the street.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,112 ✭✭✭Louche Lad


    Several studies have found that owners of small businesses greatly overestimate the proportion of their customers arriving by car. For example:

    https://ggwash.org/view/96602/survey-most-shopkeepers-shoppers-overestimate-car-use

    https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2021/11/05/parking-kills-businesses-not-bikes-or-buses.html



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,730 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    Looking at the amount of cars parked in the crescent shopping center vs the number of bikes parked there on any given Saturday I'd be inclined to disagree with that statement



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,566 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    You are being purposely ignorant.

    Anyone without an anti bike agenda knows these reports are about city centres not shopping centres built on the edge of cities.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,730 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    I don't have an anti bike agenda, but I do feel that when planning city layouts priority given to the way the majority travel, rather than the minority



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,112 ✭✭✭Louche Lad


    You saw some cars in a car park at an out-of-town shopping centre built for cars.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,730 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    I think you'll find the shopping center was built for shopping



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