Galway light rail, my idea for a route

Looks like the plans to move away from the doomed ring road have started.

Bus lanes are used by private cars constantly as seen in Galway constantly. BÉ Cork manager said this is one of the reasons that buses are not reliable:

a chronic shortage of drivers, lack of bus lanes, congestion, illegal bus stop use, and lack of enforcement of parking regulations.

What stops drivers from illegally using a tram lane. Why will trams have less of a driver shortage than buses ?

Morning Ireland covered it here:

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2024/1031/1478322-galway-luas/

and here is a link to a brief overview of the Mathematics study by Michael Mc Gettrick University of Galway that was mentioned in the thread back in 2020

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0204/1113099-the-maths-of-public-transport/

If this goes ahead, are the funds for the ring road still in place, or will GLUAS use those funds?

I see this as political maneuvering. Let's see how many politicians drop the "the GCRR must be built" line once the election is over. This could potently be where they can move their opinions

I'm not for or against the GCRR. I just can't see how it can be built. It's going to be a huge waste of time and money. The GCRR will be part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and will have to align with the policy.

https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t_en

Requirements for the TEN-T infrastructure

The purpose of the infrastructure requirements for the TEN-T network are twofold. They ensure that transport infrastructure users can count on an efficient, reliable and high-performing infrastructure wherever they are in the EU. This important for our economic development and competitiveness and the cohesion of the EU.

The requirements also ensure the development of more sustainable forms of transport. They make sure that our infrastructure can help reduce emissions from transport and is resilient against the impacts of climate change. Thanks to the requirements sustainable transport modes will be able to offer competitive services. They also promote digitalisation and improve multimodality. Among other, the requirements concern:

I'd be fairly confident neither the ring road nor a tram line will be built in Galway in my lifetime and I'm hopeful of having another 50 years. It's impossible to get anything done in Galway.

it’s that time when elections near and the people of Galway get the usual nonsense instead of solutions to the insane transport problems a city split in two by a river that’s also wedged between sea and lake with only one modern bridge and three medieval bridges (and one pedestrian bridge neither pedestrians nor cyclists prefer compare to bridge next to it)

Nana Nana na nah nahna Monorail!

A bus hold 70/80 passsengers max, a 60 meter tram can hold 250+ passengers, so each tram driver moves 2/3 time the number of passengers.

For on street running, enforcement is the only way to keep cars out of tram lanes, but this gets easier with off road running.

I understand that trams carry more than buses. I'm not stupid.

But no one was talking about capacity. The poster said that buses are unreliable because of "shortage of drivers, lack of bus lanes, congestion, illegal bus stop use, and lack of enforcement of parking regulations"

Trams don't solve any of those problems. In theory off road running solves one problem but that won't be possible in Galway city centre anyway.

The tram is just some fantasy fix all solution that for some reason gets none of the vitriol that buses get. We have the same Lyle Lanley tram/monorail stuff spouted for Limerick to Shannon and always by people who refuse to even admit to the existence of never mind use the very good (now 24hr) bus service.

No you do not need less drivers.

That is working off the assumption that you now only need 1 tram and hour instead of a bus every 15 minutes because it holds more. For the tram to be effective it needs to run every 15 minutes just like the bus.

So 100% wrong on that.

The reason LUAS lines are broken less than bus lanes is because LUAS lines more often run away from the general road where as almost all bus lanes are right next to a general use lane. If you made an entire section (let's say Eyre Square) car free you would see no rule breaking.