Public consultation on Cork light rail to proceed as obstacles resolved

The last obstacles to going ahead with a public consultation about the proposed light rail system for Cork have been resolved, and the two main routes should be put before the public to send a signal it will go ahead, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has said.

The minister was speaking after meeting with members of Cork City Council earlier this week, and he acknowledged that the delay in the process had been frustrating.

“The first thing you have to do is go out to public consultation and there’s been a delay in that; that’s been very frustrating, in my mind,” said Mr Ryan.

“I think it will go out now. It has to look at the favoured option of Patrick St to MacCurtain St. There is an alternative route, those two routes need to be put out very quickly because it sends a signal — yes, we are going to step up the pace now, in Cork and everywhere else.

“It will come first as a bus lane. The way this is going to work, in Galway as well as Cork, is that you put in really high-quality bus corridors. In this case, the route is fairly clear, Ballincollig right the way through, linking all the main hospitals, universities, the city centre, out the docklands, out to Mahon, such an obvious route."

Corridors

“We have 11 bus corridors to build, and I think that’s the first we should go at in Cork because, by getting that in early, by showing that there’s the demand for the public transport and you can give the priority to it, then it’s much easier to introduce the light rail after that.”

Mr Ryan also said that Cork’s city centre needs investment in the same way as was outlined in a plan published on Monday to revitalise the centre of Dublin at an initial cost of €1bn and €165m per year subsequently.

“I think it’s vital, and I think it is about getting people living back in the centre, about having really good public transport and a good living environment in the city centre, and that’s all connected. If we make it less car-dominated, which is what that study is saying, if we make it more of a living city centre, I think the same applies for Cork as for Dublin.”