Cork plans sustainable urban transport as part of EU rail network

A NEW agreement between EU states will give a key role to Cork as a core city within the trans-European transport network leading to super-fast train connections in Ireland and new routes to Europe.

The plan includes the development of a direct rail link to the Port of Cork for freight and passenger traffic and the creation of lay-bys and service centres on Irish motorways.

Cork along with Dublin, Limerick and Galway have been named as Ireland’s core cities in a network which includes 430 cities in the EU. The network will involve developing a 200kph rail link between Cork and Dublin as well as with Limerick.

As part of the plan, Cork will have to develop its own Sustainable Urban Transport Plan before 2030 with the aim of promoting low-emission mobility.

The plan will also include the introduction of a new Cork to Le Havre ferry route in addition to the existing routes which see the southwest region connected to France via Roscoff and to Santander in Spain.

The provisional agreement was reached in Brussels last week following talks involving the European Parliament and the European Council with its aim “to significantly step up efforts to build a sustainable and resilient trans-European transport network (TEN-T) and this plan will include strong incentives to increase the use of more sustainable forms of transport and, for instance, encouraging people to combine different transport modes to complete a single journey, within transport systems across Europe”.

EU SUMMIT

The TEN-T agreement will now have to ratified at an EU summit in April.

According to Cork Green Party councillor Oliver Moran, it is too early to fully evaluate the implications for Cork arising out of the new agreement. He said while some of the plan was already being integrated into different national plans, it was not being incorporated in very notable ways in others.

“There are ample opportunities in Cork to directly connect passengers and freight by rail to ferries,” he said.

“This hasn’t been a focus of the port to date and isn’t a strong feature of the port’s own vision for 2050. The EU plan also includes that all rail lines in the core network will allow trains to travel at 160kph or faster by 2040.

“Cork to Dublin is already at that level, while Cork to Limerick is currently much slower. Both of these lines are planned to be improved to at least 200kph in the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.

“Among the notable inputs from the European Greens is that all major cities across the network will have to develop Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. Cork will be included in this and it overlaps with our designation as an EU Mission City to be climate neutral by 2030.”

Responses have been sought from Irish Rail and the Port of Cork Company.