Tim Pot

@DublinCommuters @OConnorOisin @CorkCommuter Have you seen this already? Interim design advice for hard shoulder bus-priority measures. Depending on option: + bus-gates on merge lanes - bus to leave mainline at every junction - no on-line bus stops tiipublications.ie/library/DN-GEO…

The fully autonomous, two line, 28 station Rennes Metro seems to have cost €2bn to build in today's money. A report into building something similar in Bristol has costs up to £18bn. The Mayor has hit back saying it'd only be £7bn. That's still loads more. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

@FrillysKnickers @yascaoimhin @brian_caulfield @GerardHowlin Gas via the natl. grid will be powering EV's for a long time yet. Those emissions still count, as do the emissions from constructing roads. And before you say, constructing railways has a smaller emissions footprint.

@Mr_T_Pot @yascaoimhin @brian_caulfield @GerardHowlin 1:1 = half of cars = 50% diesel/petrol cars = half the emissions. But if we are reducing emissions to 0 (= 0 petrol/diesel cars) then what’s the problem with more roads? We’d have as many roads as we like, and with emissions at 0.

Excellent article by @GerardHowlin Leo Varadkar’s support for roads is nostalgia for a world suffocating on its own emissions irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/0…

The announcement comes following a request from the Labour party who said it needs to be made easier for people who want to cycle to do so. jrnl.ie/6131010t

@johnk1964 @OisinDonn Unfortunately, there are other places in Ireland that have greater populations that need a better rail service than wexford. There has to be priority of outcomes. Wfd-Dub 1hr20 and trains every hour. Wx to Rslr not mentioned, but Wx to Dub via Wfd mentioned at 2hrs.

@Mr_T_Pot @OisinDonn Under the NEW idea, what’s the estimated travel time Waterford to Dublin & what is the estimated travel time. Wexford south to Rosslare strand on to Waterford.

All the All-Island Rail Review is asking for is that we spend a similar amount of annual capital spend as Wales does on its rail network until 2050, and even still less than what Scotland spends. The proposals are realistic and (provided engineering capacity) deliverable.

@FrillysKnickers @yascaoimhin @brian_caulfield @GerardHowlin A 1:1 switch will lower emissions. But if we continue to increase the number of cars we continue to increase the emissions when we are ultimately trying to reduce to 0. Priority is supposed to be: 1) Avoid emissions 🚲 2) Shift to lower emissions 🚉🚍 3) Improve existing ⚡️🚗

@Mr_T_Pot @yascaoimhin @brian_caulfield @GerardHowlin More EVs means less emissions. (Does it - if not, then why the push?

There is already a road to every house in the country. As with rail, you will not be getting a motorway stop to your front door. Like with other sectors, we try to reduce demand and then improve efficiencies. New roads for cars and trucks are not very efficient.

@FrillysKnickers @yascaoimhin @brian_caulfield @GerardHowlin More vehicles will mean more emissions unless our grid is net zero. We already have roads to every house in the country

@yascaoimhin @brian_caulfield @GerardHowlin You’ll need the road infrastructure in place so that the increase in vehicles can be handled. Or, of course, you could build new railway lines with stops at every house in the country. Or use the Electric buses that lie idle waiting for chargers. (you know about them I take it?)

@cianginty Love how we needed to include 'free' and then confused all the non-english speakers by saying 'tap-water' instead of clearly saying that is safe to drink. 🙄

@johnk1964 @OisinDonn Everything in the report does not exist. Wexford South is a proposed station. If measures implemented, from Wexford town one could get to West/North Dublin in about 2 hours via Waterford or South Dublin via Wicklow. Scorthy/Gorey to South Dublin under 2 hours.

@Mr_T_Pot @OisinDonn There is no such station as wexford south. No one from wexford is going to get a train from wexford to Rosslare strand to Waterford to Dublin. That is not going to happen. People from Enniscorthy, Gorey will still be driving to Dublin. The population along that line is growing.

@transportkev I disagree about the space req. Dublin has no real distinction between minor/major routes and largest capacity streets allow turns into laneways. Middle lane running is best way to keep priority, and for smaller streets we could make bus/local-only. Utrecht has a nice BRT line.

@transportkev Certainly a victim of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good there. Scrapping this and going for a bigger project that will take 2-3 times as long to implement, when there isn't really a whole lot of difference between the schemes. Some aversion to central running BRT.

@johnk1964 @OisinDonn There is a multi-million scheme already underway to climate proof that line. extra services were recommended, as well as line speed improvements. Some Dublin-Waterford services are recommended to terminate at a new Wexford-South station after reinstatement of track.

@OisinDonn Dublin - Wexford line. Serving large & growing urban areas. Rock falls at Bray head, coastal flooding in wicklow, single line. NOTHING.

@RailUsersIe One would hope that BE would have no influence on these matters. That being said, it's also pretty bonkers that they don't share the same ticketing/web-services info. I'm sure in theory the setup under CIE is supposed to offer economies of scale.

@Mr_T_Pot It is a coincidence that Bus Eireann does not offer express service from Cork any more? Nothing stopping IE from enabling this for all trains arriving into Heuston apart from maybe the CEO of Bus Eireann being very unhappy...

New offering, if you book Cork Dublin Heuston(just Cork for now) you can add a bus ticket to Dublin Airport with Dublin Express.

@transportkev On a similar thread, with a 30b projection and legitimate concerns over the cost/value we receive, should we be spending a couple of millions now and get some academics/industry/state-bodies to see how can we make rail cheaper. Standardisation, innovation, knowledge-sharing etc.

Hard to believe we still have climate emergency skeptics. Want #green? #VoteGreen . #Galway communities have epic wishlist list of Active Travel projects. Start by addressing these @GalwayCoCo.

Minister @martinheydonfg confuses criticism of the IFA with an "attack on all farmers" in today's Daily Mail, tacitly endorsing farm org disinformation campaigns

@owenisnotblurry Almost gone. irishexaminer.com/news/arid-4119…

@Mr_T_Pot Fg support higher means they speak for more people than the greens do. Emissions are irrelevant. Electric vehicles and trucks on the way. I dont recall being asked do I support reducing emissions. Emission targets can also be amended and change. Road building will continue

One to remember come election time. Some see an ambitious plan for rail and work to implement it. Others want to use it as an excuse to build ever-more roads. Elections matter! irishtimes.com/transport/2023…