M4 - Maynooth to Leixlip [constr. of inbound bus lane underway;planning and design underway on rest]

Eamon Ryan in transport has been a mess. There's been f all except a few bike lanes done despite huge budget surpluses. Not ONE major construction project underway anywhere. Dublin Airport crippled as well. It's a disgrace but thankfully it's coming to an end.

Is it inconceivable that there are other modes of transport beyond driving that might be worthy of time and money? He’s not even the Minister primarily responsible for roads, that was given to Jack Chambers.

Vicious climate? Have you never ventured on holidays anywhere but Playa Del Costa?

I suspect you’ve also never looked at the actual population density along the parts of the N4 being upgraded. It’s not exactly Leitrim.

Yes, and will be for a good while yet

He'll be gone soon, hopefully in November, and we can back to actually progressing infrastructure. As well as the obstruction he's a useless minister. He has delivered absolutely nothing of substance apart from a couple of bike lanes (progressed before he even got the job). His job is to fight his corner for his department and make sure they have the resources it needs. He's failed spectacularly and he is leaving his department with the country in a mess on transport.

I would say he was a worse minister than Shane Ross. Absolutely useless.

Really ? I use this line regularly but only outside rush hours. Seldom see it busy. Often I have a carriage to myself? So where's the demand. It runs every 30 minutes so it's a great service which rarely requires a long wait. I love it. It passes densely packed suburbs like Cabra, Ashington, Ashtown, Castleknock etc . As a bonus it connects with Broombridge as a feeder so very handy if ya want to avoid Connolly. The Lucan stop, I admit, is a bit of a dud since its far way up a steep hill from the village. Do locals in these suburbs not use it preferring cars or busses ?

Whether its electrified (at great cost ) or stays at it is misses the point. Is the demand there?

I'm not sure what line you're using as there isn't a Lucan stop, its the busiest non-DART commuter line in the country with Maynooth being the 9th or 10th busiest station in the country.

It'd be one of the busiest commuter lines outside of peak also, and has peak traffic in both directions due to MU and Intel - more so than some sections of the DART.

Coolmine is close to the top ten busiest stations as well as Maynooth being in it. New station at Pelletstown was an instant success and is very busy.

They've just signed a contract for westbound consultancy on another bus lane. Another Mickey Mouse project courtesy of Eamon Ryan. The real schemes were downgraded to this rubbish which benefits nobody. Buses are not stuck in traffic on the M4. There is hardly any of them in the first place. Absurd waste of our money and they will obviously be turned in to regular lanes at a later date. It's all nonsense.

Another thing I have noticed - They've referred to the eastbound one as the "pilot scheme". So the "pilot" scheme isn't up and running yet (it's barely started construction) so everyone can see it's a load of bs yet they sign another contract to waste more of our money.

That's what we're dealing with.

I saw it recently too - well under construction at this stage. I agree that the new 'bus lane' will not be turned into a general running lane, they tried having no hard shoulders on motorways in the UK and it's been a cluster***k. We absolutely should not do the same thing here.

BTW what is (or will be) the law regarding breakdowns on the "motorway with a bus lane" thing they're doing here? Like if you are driving a car and you suffer a burst tire or engine overheating, will you be allowed to pull into the bus lane?

The hard shoulder will still legally be the hard shoulder and can be used in an emergency. However they are also adding refuge areas every 500 metres so cars can pull in.

The refuge areas mean cars can get off the road if needed. Hard shoulders come from a time when cars broke down regularly, modern cars don't breakdown often. The hard shoulder is for emergency use but I'd say it is more often used for non-emergencies. For the short distance involved, I can't see this being an issue.