Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 1 Jun 2021
THE GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED today new plans for a metropolitan rail network for Cork.
At the announcement of the new Economic Recovery Plan, Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, said the government is signalling a “major investment in metropolitan rail network for Cork” in what he called a “transformation of the city.”
The plan will start today, with a fund of €184 million, and the new commuter line is planned to run through Cobh, Midleton and Mallow.
Ryan also said there are plans to improve Kent Station and, in time, new stations will be built in Tivoli, Blarney, Kilbarry and other locations.
There are 30,000 houses zoned beside, along and near those stations according to the Minister.
“It’s a signal to the developers on the councils in Cork, we build around substations we build sustainably, we do transport-led development,” he said.
Speaking this evening on RTÉ’s Six One News, Taoiseach Michéal Martin said that he couldn’t out a definite timeline on the completed project but that it would happen “quickly”.
“That allocation will have to be in the next two years, what’s happening here is the electrification of the route from Midleton to Mallow, a new line also. It’s an interesting project and Eamon Ryan to be fair has been committed to this because it also ties into the new model of development in cities where we want public transport close to new public housing schemes,” the Taoiseach said.
I don’t have a timeline in terms of the actual completion but it’s part of the Cork metropolitan rail network which was announced some time ago that county councils are involved in it but this is something that can happen quickly because it’s both the electrification of the line, it’s creating a new line, a double line and also configuring Kent station and creating new stations along the line to Mallow.
A billion euro investment in our shared future. Half the fund secured for Green recovery projects including a commuter rail corridor in Cork for transport-led housing development.
— Eamon Ryan (@EamonRyan) June 1, 2021
Full details of the path ahead:
🔗https://t.co/GBRuqkU69f pic.twitter.com/C4fv5Dr7XS
Ryan said that the European Commission has signed off on the plan and that Ireland’s Recovery and Resilience Plan is in tune with the Green Transition that Europe sees as the heart of the recovery.
The funding of these new rail links will look to allow future electrification of the service.
Ryan also said that a plan like this will be done in Limerick, Galway and Waterford as well.
Ireland is using part of its €915 million in grants from the EU’s massive stimulus plan for Europe to fund the new rail works.
A total of €503 million is to be spent on advancing Green Transition projects in Ireland; as well as the Cork rail works, money will be going on providing supports of small and medium businesses and exporters to address their emissions, the advanced rehabilitation of 33,000 hectares of former industrial peatland, and upgrading a minimum of 10 water treatment plants.
“In investing in our economic recovery we are simultaneously investing in the renewal of our economy, progressing to a decarbonised, more digitalised future with opportunities for all our people across sectors and regions,” said Ryan.
Ireland plans to halve its carbon emission over the next decade, as part of its transition to a greener economy. Under the EU Green Deal, Ireland is aiming to achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2050.
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I’ll just have to check their website or social media while driving now for updates….
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: Could this possibly be connected? https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/02/07/jam-today-rte-and-aa-roadwatch/
@Here’s How Podcast: Full story on the podcast here: https://blog.hereshow.ie/2019/02/heres-how-82-rte-and-the-aa/
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: You might have to pay for this service now|
Elaine o Sullivan AA road watch ! I’m gonna miss her voice
@Marko: and Ester Moore ODonoghue
@Marko: Arwen Foley was the one for me.
@Alan McArdle: Lorraine Keane anyone?
@Bill Spill: I certainly would. Met her at electric office many years ago. What a lady
@Adrian O’Donnell: Electric Office? Were you having a picnic together?
@Marko: sometimes sounded like she said the A 3 times. Maybe she’d been out the night before.
No more rind-a-bits being busy so.
@theseadoc: nothing will stop the dunkettle interchange being blocked
@Stuart:
@Stuart:
@Stuart: ah the memories of random places we only know through this broadcast! They might not even exist half of them.
Typical big buyer slashing overheads, and never mind who it affects.
@John Nolan: Ridiculous comment. Are they not entitled to make business decisions in their own interests? Why don’t you set up a traffic notification service and provide it to radio stations if it means so much to you?
What ever became of electric Eddie, eye in the sky… Probably dead and buried somewhere on the Con Colbert road, the only location with traffic back in the day
@Shay Murray: it’s driver is stuck at the Red Cow Roundabout
Who’s going to provide traffic reports for the radio stations now ? It’s a major loss for serious road users. It was fantastic to hear the traffic reports on the hour after the news and if something was happening on the road your driving on, you were notified of it. Another backwards step. In the UK, you don’t even have to wait for the news, the traffic reports interrupt whatever station your listening to.
@Sean Walsh: that is because the traffic situation in the UK is an absolute ball breaker. Not even comparable to here. Or was a ball breaker, pre covid..
Laren behan … a beautiful voice !
How will I find my in into the meeja now, love island won’t take me, AA roadwatch gone, crimewatch auditions go nowhere, and I won’t stoop to fair city levels just yet!
At least that’s a few annoying voices off the airwaves.
Useless anyway. Radio reports are brutal. Dublin 103.2 for traffic reports in real time.
@Jimmy Reid: hasn’t been the same since John left though.
Was never helpful to me. Everytime it was the same report “traffic heavy on the dunnekettle” its always heavy.
@Michael: The AA are losing money – most if not all insurance companies or garages provide breakdown cover
Have they an app? They could seek to integrate their real time info with Google maps.
@HarveyLemonade: Where there’s a will, there’s a Waze.
@HarveyLemonade: you can see traffic build ups on Google maps and Apple maps if you Amber lines on maps that’s traffic build up and red lines is traffic at a stop. Also Apple maps is eventually bringing in incident reporting to Ireland like Waze where you can report traffic, accidents speed checks etc
Patnav on Nova will have to do.
A fantastic podcast on the whole situation.
https://blog.hereshow.ie/2019/02/heres-how-82-rte-and-the-aa/?ref=Broadsheet
Bring back The eye in the Sky ! Helicopter service.
They were always rubbish anyway. I well remember the bad old days when I lived in Kildare, and you’d regularly hit a monster traffic jam on the N7 that AA Roadwatch would conveniently have forgotten to mention.
Lorraine Keane, AA Roadwatch
Why? Nooooooooo!
No more helpful mentions of their names by RTÉ presenters in order to help them up on the “celebrity” bandwagon ” ah well Swings and rindeabouts I suppose.
No more traffic “Nooze” then?
Karen Chew all day long.
Anyone remember the ozzie girl,BUMPER TO BUMPER..
@Peter Bell: that does rind a bell Peter.
@Peter Bell: that does ring a bell Peter.
Can’t read websites while driving
Delighted.
The AA and RTÉ themselves are no longer of any relevance.
What motorist would wish to have constant blabbering on a radio, same format from the same sounding stations who constantly have to announce their frequency or name to stay relevant.
Get an iPod or a subscription to Spotify or similar.
have your say