Cork - BusConnects

Yeah , there should be a way ,for buses to safely pull in and passengers to change , there is space for the train to pull in , park and ride is a bit out there , all that should have been included n the original design brief - kind of need to include an n40 / north ring orbital bus route that links in ..

It is a huge area , but if you exclude the little island slip roads, it's a bit more manageable.

Another Bus Connects bump: the Airport only gets 2 buses: one on 60min frequency from Haulbowline to Kent, the other on 30 min frequency to Kent. That's not enough. That looks like a mistake in the design of Bus Connects. If there's only two buses there it means almost everyone needs to change bus, so they need to lay on a higher frequency to the Airport to smoothen that out. It needs to be 20 min or even 15.

Looking at the Luas preferred route and it cuts right through that same spot as the proposed new bus stops at CUH.

I don't know where I read it but they also seem to acknowledge it as a transfer point from bus-to-luas and luas-to-bus transfers. It does look like they've taken it all into account. Remember too that the route maps are really only indicative at this point and what gets built can vary quite a bit at detailed design. No harm getting the submission in about it though!

Definitely. The more positive submissions the better.

At the last public consultation they said exactly that- if you are in favour of it do tell us, don't assume everyone else will. And that people who don't like it are more likely to make a submission so the responses can be very imbalanced.

https://www.transportforireland.ie/news/nta-and-bus-eireann-to-launch-new-route-31-connecting-knockraha-to-cork-city/

It looks like one of the routes proposed under BusConnects is actually happening. No information yet on the exact routing or the timetable, but I'm guessing this was the proposed route 51 (now numbered 31). It will operate every 90 minutes as opposed to the planned 120 minutes and also operate on Sundays too. The new route will also replace the 214 extensions to Knockraha.

Ah, it wasn't loading for me correctly, but I see it now, thanks!

Weird using 31 as the route number so early. The reason all the cork routes changed to 200 numbers was because the realtime indicators are operated on a national basis and there would be duplication with other BÉ routes

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Not actually BusConnects but Cork City Council propose to realign the N8 between Lower Glanmire Road and Alfred Street to a new alignment closer to the rear of Kent Station in order to create a new promenade on the waterfront along Horgan’s Quay;

Are they missing a trick here to but in a contra-flow bus lane? Surely Alfred Street and south of the station would be a better route for buses than going north of Kent? Shouldn't be building two general traffic lanes anyway, give the space to buses.

100% agree. The load times are an absolute force. Leap actually managed to make it slower getting on the bus - you couldn't make it up. Why you can't prevalidate before you get on board by having machines at each stop is beyond me

From what I've seen Leap Card is treated like cash in Cork. It's really cumbersome. All they're short of is a step to give you virtual change. The system for Bus Éireann was clearly designed for rural expressway coaches, not city busses, which was always a constant issue for CIE which seemed to only be able to get its head around "Dublin Bus" and "Down the Country Bus"

TFI at least seems to understand urban transport is a thing outside of the M50.

Any rough idea of when it's coming? At least the prices are lower with Leap. There is some benefit