Cork - Light Rail [route options identification and initial design underway]

It’s a wonder public transport struggles to get sold here with the brain types involved.

Brands are straightforward, you come up with something distinctive yourselves or (as in a lot of other cities), a colloquial name becomes the brand longer term.

And once again for the hard of reading, I literally said keep it as Luas through the planning process and to construction for these reasons. It’s mad how many people cannot or don’t want to read on a discussion forum.

Yes brands are a problem apparently, except for when they aren’t and suit you (Luas).

The amount of inane posts on here from some people. “It’s not the right mode!”- only certain brain types get exercised about this sort of thing.

Which is not what I said.

I said for Cork I’d put in a brand for their high frequency rail overall.

Luas brand is good and great to get it through planning, that’s accepted. But longer term I’d like to see Cork (and it would have been my preference for Dublin too but that ship has sailed) to have its own distinctive brand.

What are you waffling on about? “If the system has teething problems”- if it has teething problems it would be the same thing for Luas in Cork. It’s a nonsensical point.

Again this comes down to a certain brain type - “it’s not the right mode!”.

All I am talking about is creating something unique- signage, naming, colours- for Cork. It’s not controversial.

No it isn’t. They call the service Luas because it’s being well established.

Many don’t have a clue about what the difference between modes are. I know this is tough for some of you but not everyone is into trains. Nobody normal talks about the DART and the Luas being different mode.

I accept the Luas is a good brand now and valuable for planning. If it continues on like that it’s fine too. I am simply referring to trying to get something unique for Cork- name, livery or whatever- that other cities have and is useful.

Nobody in Boston cares that the Green Line is a different mode to the Red Line except the anoraks like you. They do know the name and brand though, it’s iconic and used to market the city. There is no “confusion” because normal people don’t think like that.

Pop culture

It features in Cheers, Good Will Hunting, the Town and the Departed- it’s a calling card for the city

Branding (there is even an official store in the city)

https://mbtagifts.com/collections/fine-art-prints-system-maps

If any sports is on there- they will flash up the stations there and guess which sign they go for?

We all accept brands are important. I understand the view on the Luas and how it’s accepted and useful for getting people on board with the project. Where we differ is I think long term there is a chance to do what others cities have and make something unique. It isn’t “terrible”, it happens in many places and helps those cities establish an identity. Again to point out, literally nobody except posters on the likes of this website care for these different modes.

Sorry once again, you are just that type of person.

Nobody in the real world gets this hung up on modes. You regurgitating the obvious to a bunch of anoraks is embarrassing, quit it.

At the end of the day, if they can get the Cork Luas and the CACR up to 10-15 min frequencies then people will start to view them as part of a mass rapid transit system. My view- bucket them together eventually and come up with a brand. The CACR has zero buzz partly because it’s a crap brand.

Personally I’d do the same in Dublin. I know I know, getting to 5 min service on the DART would be “Metro” like. Waffle waffle waffle x or y mode- nobody normal cares for this stuff. They view both the Luas and DART as frequent mass transit. We already did a pointless heavy lift on the Luas brand when they should just have been DART lines. We are doing it again with Metro. Anyway, that’s done. For Cork, I’d like to see some unique branding and livery, there’s still the chance.

All of the MBTA falls under the T branding including the commuter rail. Not sure how you are missing this if you get the commuter rail frequently? Each train has the T in a circle brand on it. Same across all of the maps, facilities and marketing

Yes it is a quality of service.

So if something comes within 10-15 mins and is seen as rapid, it would come under this city wide brand.

You ARE hung up and your last point proves that. Literally nobody apart from weirdos here gets hung up on DART versus Luas and “on street trams”. They are both seen as mass transit within Dublin.

What’s there to concede here? You have an issue that I think an eventual city wide brand is a good idea for Cork, both in terms of branding it internationally and getting further lines open. I don’t disagree with the effectiveness of Luas as a means to get initial buy in, that was my initial point too. You are the one brandishing stuff as terrible and what not. It does work in other cities, that’s a fact. You can go the other way on that and that’s fine, no big deal.

Once again, if it’s rail and frequent it is rapid transit to people. That’s it.

The reason why Luas consistently comes up as a good enough means to get to Dublin Airport is because people view it as so. At best you’ll get a “it would be great if it went underground”.

Nobody cares, and this idea of a “risk” of an underperforming service seems contrived to me. The risk remains if branded Luas, just that people will say that in Cork they got a crap Luas and Dublin got a good one.

CACR and Cork Luas will be viewed the same as DART and Luas are in Dublin- if you live beside a line you are blessed and have rapid mass transit. You might get comments like the above “I wish it went underground” (Cork Luas) in time, same as you do in Dublin.

I’m not in the business of arguing over segregated busways or not.

My view on Metro in Dublin is we put a rod on our own back by making it this big thing, something international in nature and beyond us. We are somewhat aligned here in looking to use established brands to sell it. Where we differ is longer term for a full Cork “network” is my view that you should align the brands relevant to there and look to grow further from there.

Jaysus I really kicked off a bun fight on names……………anyway CoMeT (or Cork Metropolitan Transport), an umbrella name for the various local public transport operations (city bus network, tram "network", commuter rail, and public bikes). Like so many other medium sized European cities. "Luas" is yet another reminder of the political/administrative reality that we are the "south-west" region of the greater Dublin area.