While Irish Rail is planning to open a new station at Monard, near Blarney — on the Charleville route — the council is asking it to consider opening additional rail stations on that line.

“Every single day, families are trapped inside their own estates by gridlock, forced to take risky manoeuvres just to pull out onto the road. Crossing the street is a nightmare," a councillor said.

"The last thing they need is for the Government to make it more expensive to get to work, school, college or other essential services," said Pat Buckley.

A proposal to let cats and dogs hop on buses and trains with their owners really has not been thought through, says Trevor Laffan

Social Democrat TD Liam Quaide raised the issue in the Dáil, saying that overcrowding on the Midleton-Cork rail line was reaching "farcical" levels.

A Cork man says repeated requests to replace the damaged flag at Parnell Place bus station have gone unanswered

The National Transport Authority says plans to introduce contactless payments on Cork buses remain on schedule and within budget despite the removal of contractor Indra from a separate rail project that led to a €50m write-off

"Government and the National Transport Authority must ask what can be done right now to improve the experience of people who rely on public transport to get to work, school, and college," Social Democrats councillor Eamonn Horgan said. 

“It is fabulous to see the number of visitors, but very frustrating for them when they can’t find parking spaces,” Independent Ireland councillor Ger Curley said. 

The motion was brought by Social Democrats councillor Isobel Towse at a recent meeting of Cork County Council’s West Cork Municipal District.

Lots of the complaints were about young people – one reported eight teenagers being loud, playing music and being “physically violent with each other, including hitting the one girl in their group”.

“The most frequent reason for bus cancellations in recent times around Cork has been related to the unavailability of drivers," said a spokesperson.

The Kilbarry station will be located near the historic Blackpool station, bounded by Dublin Hill Road and Redforge Road, and will be serviced by up to 10 trains daily initially.

The national increases will, however apply to buses outside of the city, as well as trains.

'There’s been drug mules going up and down that corridor, gardaí have been somewhat successful in dealing with that'

Of 13 complaints that mentioned vaping, one was a person expressing concern that a child was vaping, and another was a complaint about a staff member vaping on the train. Four complaints were also made about drug use.

The contract covers detailed design, preparation and assessment of construction tenders, supervision of the building work and the eventual handover of the bridge.

Nearly €800,000 has been spent on Parnell Place bus station in the last five years — but there is uncertainty over what exactly it was spent on. Figures provided by Bus Éireann show €795,716 has been spent on the city centre bus station since 2021.

The works, approved by Cork County Council in September, come as part of Iarnród Éireann’s national car park expansion programme.

The NTA spent six years developing a computer system to manage train movements, before concluding that the software could not be deployed.

The programme for government commits to working with local authorities and relevant agencies to develop affordable park and ride facilities on the outskirts of major towns and cities.

The estimate of final project cost is €16.8m inclusive of Vat, within the budget of €17.1m.

The advocate described the scheme as an “exceptionally good service”, encouraging people to use it to visit East Cork or West Cork or even other counties, and reminding people that they could bring a companion for free.