Cork City needs ‘radical change’ for public transport
The State must invest in game-changing public transport projects in Cork to ensure the city can act as a counterbalance to development in the capital over the next 20 years, a planning expert has said.
Will Brady of UCC’s Centre for Planning Education and Research said it will require “radical and disruptive changes” to the city but the changes are necessary to avoid endless urban sprawl.
He warned against using “narrow and short-sighted” interpretations of viability amid concerns that a Luas-style light-rail system for the city could be up to 20 years away, based on population figures. And he said that pending the delivery of a proper public transport system, large-scale developments should be “public transport-proofed” and that proposals with limited or no public transport provision should not be considered.
His comments come as the National Transport Authority published figures yesterday that show a 19m rise in passenger journeys on State-supported public transport operators last year.
Some 269m passenger journeys were provided by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann, Luas, and Go-Ahead Ireland in 2018 — up 7.5% compared to 2017.
Bus Éireann saw the single biggest percentage increase, with 35.1m passenger journeys compared to 31.1m in 2017 — up 12.9%. Its city services in Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford increased by 13.2% overall.
Dublin Bus provided the largest number of journeys at more than 143m — up almost 7m on 2017.
The NTA is now finalising the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Study, due for public consultation within weeks, which will set out the public transport vision for the next 20 years. It is expected to focus heavily on developing cycle lanes and improving the bus network, with some €200m earmarked for a BusConnects scheme.
However, Mr Brady said rail must also feature in the plan, with two impactful projects deliverable quickly for less than €15m — a railway station at Blackpool and a park-and-ride rail-based facility at Dunkettle.
“Both have already been subject to detailed design and received planning permission many years ago. The fact that these relatively low-cost projects have been ignored speaks volumes about attitudes to public transport in public policy.”
He said the apparently forgotten Cork Suburban Rail Strategy, part of the 2001-2020 Cork Area Strategic Plan, provides an enormous opportunity along the Midleton-city and city-Blarney corridor. However, future transport policy must also address the city’s socioeconomic north-south divide, with a northern ring road, rail investment, and radically improved bus services to the northside required.
Mr Brady criticised the NTA’s apparent reluctance to capitalise on one of the “most effective yet low-cost transport projects in Cork” — the bike-share scheme.
The NTA told the Irish Examiner before Christmas that it is “actively exploring” an expansion of the scheme but it did not say when.
