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

Cookiemunster wrote: »

The association has nothing to do with Dublin though. It's what Irish people do. During Euro 2016 I heard Irish people calling the Bordeaux tram the Luas. Irish people refer foreign police as guards. We have a habit of referring to things by a name we know. That's not a reason to call the Cork tram Luas though.

While that may not be a reason to call it Luas, it's also not a reason to not call it Luas. The success of it and that it is well known and generally liked are reasons to call it Luas.

If it gets its own name, it will be known by that name very quickly.

Surely that contradicts what you said before!? Give it a different name but people will keep calling it Luas anyway, better off just officially naming it Luas.

Cookiemunster wrote: »

The association has nothing to do with Dublin though. It's what Irish people do. During Euro 2016 I heard Irish people calling the Bordeaux tram the Luas. Irish people refer foreign police as guards. We have a habit of referring to things by a name we know. That's not a reason to call the Cork tram Luas though.

If it gets its own name, it will be known by that name very quickly.

it's not a reason to not call it luas either.
all you keep saying is this and that is no reason to call the cork light rail luas, yet you have provided absolutely nothing to show why it shouldn't be called luas.
even if it was to get it's own name, in all likelyhood people on the ground will still call it luas, unless it ends up being a completely different varient of light rail.

Markcheese wrote: »

Is it definitely going to be light rail ? Not brt like the Belfast glider ...

I'm sure it'll get floated about at some point as an option. Speaking of which, how is the Belfast Glider faring anyway? Haven't really heard so much about it. Is there talk about expanding that service does anyone know?

end of the road wrote: »

from what i hear it has increased usage compared to the previous bus service.
i haven't heard of any expansion plans for it but perhapse there are plans.

The next phase of Glider is proposed to be South-North from Cairnshill Park and Ride on the Saintfield road up to either the Antrim or Shore Road (Which of those it runs up may end up a political football...)

salmocab wrote: »

I would think that Irish people are calling trams in other countries Luas means that there is an acceptance of it as our word for tram.

The Irish for tram is "tram"

There's a difference between DART and LUAS though - as well as the obvious one!

DART - Dublin Area Rapid Transit

LUAS - the Irish for speed

So, IMO, DART would not be acceptable for Cork - CART anyone? ;-)

LUAS means speed in 'Munster Irish' too - I have no problem with it...

Just get the damned thing built!!

I couldn't care less what they call it. They can call it after Bernie Murphy if they like. By the way where is it planned to go to do we know ?

D.L.R. wrote: »

The Irish for tram is "tram"

The DUTC called them iomchar.

The obvious route from the docklands to Mahon is the old railway line, but is it optimum? The Cork-Passage railway was built to service the compact population centres in Blackrock, and Passage, but today we're looking for a route that services a planned high-density docklands, away from the river a pretty much uniform population spread as far as the Mahon Estuary, and high-density offices at Mahon Point.

When the railway was originally built people were happy to walk a decent distance to their local station, they had few alternatives. Today if we want people to use the service it's going to have to be easily accessible to as many people as possible, otherwise they'll just drive. The docklands would probably be fine, the tram would run right through the centre of it, but continuing down the marina there's a lot of dead ground in terms of proximity to housing, river on one side and Atlantic Pond/overgrowth on the other. The next real overlap with a population is at Blackrock Station which isn't the most accessible. Then the line goes through pretty much the only bit of scrubland on the East side of the city (skimming the back of a few estates, maybe not the best potential for a stop?) until ending up at the far end of the Mahon Point area, down quite a distance from the road, and nowhere near the shopping centre.

I wonder would a better route take a diversion down Monahan road, go the other side of Atlantic Pond, through the grounds of Dundanian, join the Blackrock Road and through Blackrock Village like the original trams, through the convent grounds and out the back of Eden (parallel to the old line below), turn left along Skehard Road and right through Ballinure through the waste ground that joins St Michael's drive and into the Mahon Point area more centrally that way.

Probably impractical with the amount of CPOs and running along Blackrock Road would be a no-go.

Anyway, just my thoughts... Forgive the crude drawing.

Can someone tell me why they would consider The Chizler's route above when the old rail bed is right beside it and makes it more accessible for people to the west of the line?

Meandering lines should always be avoided where possible especially when they add little in the way of population and trip generators as this would.

I agree that going south of PUC would be preferable and maybe linking up with the old bed at the Blackrock Road junction would be better than being slavish to the old line.

riddlinrussell wrote: »

There should be yes Sam, just wondering if that will be how its viewed by the development team, the difference between "Whats the best route we can build" and "Whats the best route we can afford"

I sincerely hope we see a good look at a few different routes.

That's exactly my thinking, I'm just hoping other routes are looked at, and if the line is chosen it's because it's the right choice, not because it's the obvious or easy route. A lot of people say the line is a no brainer, but I sincerely hope someone is paid to use their brain when designing something of such significance.

TheChizler wrote: »

That's exactly my thinking, I'm just hoping other routes are looked at, and if the line is chosen it's because it's the right choice, not because it's the obvious or easy route. A lot of people say the line is a no brainer, but I sincerely hope someone is paid to use their brain when designing something of such significance.

I’ve no local knowledge but I use the green line in Dublin regularly and it went on the easy route. It’s not quite the same but I’d say there’s a balance between using the easy route and getting the route to the optimum places and densities of people.
The green line uses for the most part an old railway cut and whilst some of the areas it serves mightn’t have the highest densities It has the advantage of not having much interaction with traffic for that section.
All this is said based on me admitting I haven’t a clue what’s the best route for a city I don’t live in though.