How much did Motorways improve the driving times

Meteor67 · 16-05-2023 05:42PM #1

Hi,

Just had a discussion about the driving times from Dublin to other cities in the 'good old days'. How was it really? Driving through every little town must have been dreadful. But traffic was much less then now.

I would like to know how long it took driving with a lorry from Dublin to Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Sligo and Belfast in the early 80s and also in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Would be interesting to compare this with todays driving time.

L1011 · 16-05-2023 05:49PM

At non-peak times it wasn't wildly worse - the speed limit increase on motorway versus national, and the on motorways for trucks/coaches in ~2012 or so will have had an impact too. But peak times - rush hour and particularly bank holiday weekends - were insanity.

In the 80s, people going to Galway used to stop for food/drink (literally drink in the bad old days, pints in Harrys) in Kinnegad after the harrowing time spent getting there through the towns on the way. Each bypass removed a potential half hour or so delay at peak times.

In the late 2000s I lost days of my life every year to Abbeyleix, Mountrath, Ballinasloe etc combined.

Used to take me well over 3h to get to Galway when the motorway ended at Kinnegad. Latterly took 90mins to the Galway Airport turnoff.

JohnC. · 16-05-2023 05:54PM

Waterford to Red Cow is about 90 minutes. Telling Google to avoid the motorway and adjust to go through the centre of Naas adds an hour. But I feel like it used to be maybe a bit more than that, maybe 3 hours, but I can't remember for sure.

Speedline · 16-05-2023 05:55PM

4 and a half hours Dublin to Kilmuckridge in the late 80s in a 1981 twin wheel Transit. Less than an hour now to Riverchapel, with Kilmuckridge a further 20 minutes or so.

(The Transit is long gone.)

corks finest · 16-05-2023 06:02PM

Driving to Derry from Cork used take me 9 hours minium

12 in bad weather

Used be hell , every village n town caught in,

Fermoy nightmare,Slane also.

Going through limerick and Ennis an experience 🫣

Clareman · 16-05-2023 06:06PM

From Ennis to Dublin would take 4 hours, any less was a bonus. If you went the "main road" you'd be caught in Clarecastle, Newmarket, Limerick and every town, McDonald's opening in Nenagh was a great thing. Now you get on a motorway and you can expect to be at the Red Cow in around 2 hours

whippet · 16-05-2023 06:26PM

I remember driving Dublin to West cork on a bank holiday Friday back in about 1998 and it was tortuous - probably about 7.5 hours all in.. 5 lads in a Nissan Micra.

WildWater · 16-05-2023 07:18PM

It's not just the improved time that has been of enormous benefit but also the predictability. Pre-motorway Galway - Dublin (or elsewhere) was pure guess work. Now you can predict it almost to the minute. A friend was coming from Dublin yesterday called to say she was leaving. I looked at my watch and said she’ll be her by 9:30. Rolled in about 9:27. Thanks to that consistency, coach services like the Galway - Dublin / Airport are an excellent service.

In comparison Galway to Cork is still a complete PITA. Galway to Patrickswell great. After that, well who the feck knows. Incredibly frustrating in comparison to Galway - Dublin.

I’m also old enough to remember (and by remember I mean drive) the pre Maynooth motorway days. On a Sunday night, traffic coming back from the west would be queued from Kilcock. 😵🤪🤯

Burt Renaults · 16-05-2023 07:24PM

I remember spending six hours on a Bus Éireann coach, travelling from Dublin to Galway in 2004. An hour and a half of that was spent getting from one end of Moate to the other. Nobody should ever have to spend an hour and a half in Moate.

bk · 16-05-2023 07:42PM

Dublin to Cork was easy 4.5 to 5 hours, cold be even more bank holiday or bad weather. 2 and a half hours now!

Also keep in mind that it is much less stressful crusing on a motorway, versus driving narrow, winding roads, getting stuck behind tractors/trucks, going through towns and villages, etc.

No comparison at all, complete game changer for our country.

Jim_Hodge · 16-05-2023 07:59PM

Immense difference. With the motorway I can be at the airport in under 45 minutes. In the past I could be 25 minutes alone going through one of the towns en route.

alentejo · 16-05-2023 08:52PM

Dublin to Cork was 4 hours by road in the early 1990's and only 2h30ms by train which was way faster. Now the train takes 2h30m/2.40m which is comparable to the road journey.

standardg60 · 16-05-2023 08:53PM

Motorways are one aspect but cars are certainly another, growing up in the 80's anything that had over 100bhp was a supercar, and going over 40mph was going fast! We had a Mini and at a certain uphill T-Junction we had to get out so my dad could make it through.

Chris_5339762 · 16-05-2023 08:55PM

Think of the jamups you see in Adare and Claregalway and Castlemartyr and add it to every village on the old routes. I remember the joys of 5 mile tailbacks at Monasterevin. Abbeyleix was a disaster of a place. Fermoy was a **** story. Ennis was dreadful, it felt like it never ended, then Gort gained the jamups. Outside of a Saturday and a Sunday it was just so wildly unpredictable as to be awful.

Edit: Or just drive the current N20 for a flavour of what the M18, M8, M9, M1, M11 used to be.

RonanG86 · 16-05-2023 09:20PM

Well re-adding Enniscorthy, Ferns, Camolin & Gorey to the Wexford - Dublin trip adds 25 minutes according to Google maps.

And that's today, when everyone isn't going through Enniscorthy, Ferns, Camolin & Gorey and creating massive tailbacks. Especially in Gorey which was a bloody nightmare.

I only vaguely remember the trip before parts of the current N11/M11 were built in Wicklow (although I do remember the old road through the Glenn of the Downs), but even with a couple of those in place it was still the thick end of 3 hours.

16-05-2023 09:47PM

You don't have to go back to the '80s or '90s for the old days.

The Ennis and Castleisland bypasses only opened in 2006, the Shannon tunnel in 2010 and Gort to Tuam in 2017.

When I first started doing Galway to Kerry 20 years ago you had.

The outskirts of Galway which were dual carriageway but still backed up.

Clarinbridge

Gort

Crusheen with it's 90 degree bend

Ennis with numerous rat runs around it, some of which started in county Galway and came out close to Shannon. You'd spend 30mins driving around country boreens east of Ennis and be delighted because you saved yourself 30mins.

Clarecastle if you didn't do the rural rods avoiding Ennis.

Thankfully Newmarket on Fergus was bypassed around 2002.

But then it was into Limerick and about 10 roundabouts from Caherdavin, over the river, down the Dock road, out Raheen.

Thankfully Patrickswell was gone but no sooner were you out of Limerick than you were in Adare.

Now it's the M6 and M18, M20 from the eastern suburbs of Galway all the way to Adare.

Mrs Dempsey · 16-05-2023 09:52PM

Things took a whole lot longer - every village was a chicane - the towns were road blocks. In 1975 I lived on the east coast & decided to head for Connemara for the Easter weekend. Got to Athlone & a big big tailback - was on a motorcycle so filtered through stationery traffic. Only one road bridge over the Shannon then - narrow streets leading to it from the east side. Got to the head of the queue to discover that the locals were re-enacting the crucifixion on the narrow street. A lot of cross drivers.

Other memorable road blocks - Dundalk, Portlaoise, Fermoy, Newbridge - things have improved. Easy to forget that while you dare drive through Adare.

16-05-2023 10:22PM

Gorey to celbridge was around 2hrs 50 mins on a good day. Its now 1hr 15 mins. Some differ.

Charles Babbage · 16-05-2023 10:45PM

There were partial improvements e.g. Dundalk had the inner relief road, Drogheda the Peace Bridge. These improved things for while, but in the 1990s as the economy took off there was much more traffic and places that were not a huge problem became much worse and it became very difficult to overtake. So the opening of the motorways made a big improvement from that point.

Mech1 · 16-05-2023 11:09PM

I have 2 story's, 1st was 1987 I lived in Belfast and had just passed my driving test.I decided to bring my girlfriend shopping in Dublin. We drove for hours towards Dublin, turns out the Belfast to Dublin charity cycle was on that day so it took forever to get as far as Dublin airport. Then heading towards Dublin city centre we came to realise that U2 were playing in phoenix park that day so drunk people, normal people and Garda all over the roads. We could hardly move the car, So I parked up for 30 seconds, had a piss down an alleyway, turned the car around and headed back to Belfast swearing that I would never return to Dublin. Turns out I moved to Dublin in 1996 and have been living here ever since.

About 2002 a friend of mine working for MSL motor distributers was given an instruction to collect 3 tractors from a cork show and bring them back to MSL Naas Road. He got the train down drove one up and a train back down for the next one. Got the job sorted on a Saturday and Sunday. Till this day I don't know how he could have the patience to-do it. He is retired now but a great guy who would have driven anything anywhere.

Flinty997 · 16-05-2023 11:30PM

On those old roads it was harder to overtake, and more dangerous. No central barrier.

These days it's much better. When it's quiet. When it's busy it can a lot worse. I've been 1.5 hours one day and 2.5 hours the next day. The dread as the red line appears in Google Maps.

Mrs OBumble · 16-05-2023 11:36PM

Galway to Dublin pre-motorway on public transport took long enough that you had to stay overnight.

Now it's a very convenient day-trip. It vastly improved what it's like to live in Galway.

Hibernicis · 16-05-2023 11:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120605469#Comment_120605469

This !!

The above timings are quite accurate.

Travelling from Dublin to Cork around 1990 the dual carriageway ended at the Nass bypass and didn't start again until Tivoli. Traffic lights and pedestrian crossings were encountered in Newbridge, Kildare, Monasterevin, Portlaoise, Abbeyleix, Durrow, Urlingford, Cashel, Cahir, Mitchelstown, Fermoy, Rathcormac, Watergrasshill and Glanmire (and probably a couple of other long forgotten holes). There was a stretch of passing/climbing lane between Mitchelstown and Kilworth that you often looked forward to with greater anticipation than your summer holidays. I vividly remember leaving Newbridge one wet November Friday night behind three articulated car transporters which were in turn following a jolly little camper van bobbing along without a care in the world at 50mph. I never hit the accelerator as hard as I did on the Kilworth Mountain passing lane.

orangerhyme · 17-05-2023 12:01AM

Fair play to Bertie and FF for the motorway network. It's one thing they did right.

There was an article in the Irish times a few years ago. They went to Spain to learn how to do it.

It must've had huge benefits for productivity and cost and time savings.

Although lots of businesses must have gone under.

I remember Kerry to Dublin we would stop in a cafe called Josephine's in Urlingford.

It closed in 2009

Flinty997 · 17-05-2023 12:27AM

Lot of places that we used to stop for food are mostly gone now.

Flinty997 · 17-05-2023 12:31AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120606191#Comment_120606191

Never had an overnight train Dublin to Galway. Would have liked to tried that.

We did do knock in a day. Bit of a miracle looking back at it.

Flinty997 · 17-05-2023 12:32AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120606219#Comment_120606219

Thought it was mostly paid for by EU money. Use it or lose it kinda of a deal.

alentejo · 17-05-2023 04:56AM

I suspect there are many people alive today whom would have died in traffic accidents pre the motorway era. The no of fatalities per motorway mile is a lot less than the roads they replaced.

L1011 · 17-05-2023 06:12AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120606241#Comment_120606241

EU contribution to that NDP was tiny. Not the 80% that the 90s roads got

3DataModem · 17-05-2023 06:28AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058296705/how-much-did-motorways-improve-the-driving-times

Dublin - Galway 25% faster at least, Dublin Killarney probably 30% faster.

But more importantly - a MUCH easier drive, and a MUCH safer drive.

salmocab · 17-05-2023 06:32AM

Dublin to Galway you used to have to turn left at a chipper in I think it was kinnegad, so on the reverse journey you hit a T junction so had to wait on a break in traffic to turn right.

the upside was great places to get a breakfast instead of soulless motorway stations.

How much did Motorways improve the driving times

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