Get Cork Moving - A vision for public transport in Cork

Public transport in Cork – a never-ending story. No matter how you twist it, the current situation is completely untenable, and not worthy of a city of coming up to 200.000 people. At the same time, the city is choking in exhaust fumes, the roads are clogged worse than the arteries of a chronic smoker, and more and more new companies are opening up, further inflating the traffic volume. I don’t want to repeat myself here about the current state, I wrote an article about that little more than a year ago, but for the sake of consistency, let’s just highlight the main issues.

First of all, public transport is effectively invisible in the cityscape, unless you know what to look for. Most bus stops do not have a passenger shelter, and many lack even the basics like the name of the stop, or a schedule. What’s more, even those stops that do have shelters and haven’t been vandalised don’t really catch anyone’s eye. On Patrick Street especially, you can never be sure whether you have a bus stop in front of you, a taxi rank, or just a random bit of street furniture. This issue is exacerbated by the inconsistent, or should I say non-existent branding for public transport in Cork. Bus Éireann operate all their services in their standard livery, which makes it hard to distinguish city services from longer overland services. And no, the type of bus does not help in that regard either, as Bus Éireann substitutes city buses with long-distance coaches in case of failures. The same issue affects rail services, especially services to Mallow. All of this wouldn’t be too bad if you at least had a central point of contact for information or advice, but even that is non-existent. True, there’s an information counter at the Bus Station on Parnell Place, but the opening hours are limited, and the bus station isn’t exactly the most attractive building either. The same goes for the two tourist offices operated by Fáilte Ireland, the Irish tourism body.

Bus Stop? Shop front? Taxi rank? Kinda hard to distinguish.

Speaking of information, that is all over the place. The main bus stops in Cork City Centre have schedules for the routes that stop at these respective stops, and are even equipped with electronic departure boards, but route maps for orientation? Indications which routes pass major points of interest? Nope, not happening. And what about the situation outside the city centre, when you’re not at a major employer like Apple, or in a major commuter town like Ballincollig? Two words: forget it! You’ll be lucky to have a single pole with the Bus Éireann sign and the line number on it. Schedule? Who needs that? Route map? What the hell is wrong with you? Live departure boards? Ain’t nobody got time for that!!

Riddle time: There's a bus stop in this picture. Can you find it?

To be fair, the Transport for Ireland (TFI) Real Time Ireland does an adequate job of providing you with estimated departure times for buses in Cork, and thanks to an API provided by TFI, third party apps like Moovit have access to the same data. However, such real-time displays are only as accurate as their data sources, and that’s where the problem starts. Granted, since the latest labour court ruling, even the most reticent union gorilla seems to be turning the on-board units on their buses on regularly, so Bus Éireann buses actually provide pretty decent data. However, for the last few months, there seems to be an issue with vehicle availability, and so there’ll be private bus operators filling in the gaps when Bus Éireann doesn’t have vehicles available. The problem is that these private operators usually don’t have the necessary on-board units on their vehicles. So the software that calculates the departure times for the live departure boards just slavishly counts down towards the scheduled departure time, until it realises that it hasn’t received updates in quite some time, and drops the service completely, despite a private bus actually operating on it. None of the issues above instil confidence in a public transport service, understandably so.

Whether it is the official TFI Apps...

...such as Real Time Ireland,...

...or Third Party Apps like Moovit,...

the big issue is the quality of the data sources, as handy as the apps themselves may be!

Now, how do we get out of this mess? Well, with all due respect, it seems as if the locals are completely and utterly clueless about it. Everyone loves giving out about the buses, Bus Éireann in particular (I’m no stranger to that myself), everyone complains about the lack of roadside parking, but no one seems to be willing to use a car park and walk a few minutes, or even use the Park & Ride facility at Black Ash. Instead, buses, pedestrians, foreigners, and of course cyclists are blamed for everything from increased accidents to increased congestion, to a lack of decent chippers, global warming, or the fact that callers to a certain Cork radio station didn’t get any “action” last night. Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits, as Mark Twain so succinctly put it. The fact that public transport has traditionally been the poor relation in Irish politics doesn’t help. TFI, the coordinating body for all public transport in Ireland, while certainly doing the best it can, given its resources, is completely overstretched. Public transport is generally arranged around three state companies, rather than specialising on the transport needs of certain regions or cities. This isn’t helped by a lack of focus on the political side. Rather than aiming for well integrated public transport, the focus seems to be on high-profile standalone projects, such as LUAS, the MetroNorth project, or Bus Rapid Transit projects planned for North Dublin and Cork. A recent statement by the chief executive of the Cork Chamber of Commerce, Conor Healy, calling for a LUAS-like light rail system for Cork really illustrates that lack of joined up thinking, and to be fair, I’m not at all surprised that Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, a TD for Sinn Féin, has echoed that sentiment. Sinn Féin has, after all, always been blessed with an overabundance of lack of realism.

I get it, Light Rail is "sexy" and highly visible, such as this tram in Rotterdam. It is also expensive as hell, and requires a LOT of construction work

I personally believe that planning for a light rail system, or even for a BRT system, is a waste of money at this stage of the development of Cork. Using LUAS in Dublin as a guide, such a project would cost at least 1 billion Euros, probably more given the challenging geography of the Lee Valley and the dense cityscape of the city centre, and that’s before operating costs come into play. Construction would take several years, and shut down, or severely inconvenience parts of the city centre for that time, as well as impeding some of the main commuter routes. A BRT system would be less invasive to implement, but would still cost several hundred million Euros, given the high requirements for a proper BRT route. As far as I’m concerned, these vanity projects aren’t needed, or even helpful for Cork at this stage. Rather, part of that money should be spent addressing the issues I pointed out in my opening paragraphs:

• ·       Lack of visibility of public transport in the cityscape
• 
  
• ·       Lack of coherent visual language (branding) for all local public transport services
• 
  
• ·       Lack of easily accessible, centralised information about public transport services in Cork

The best way of going about this is the creation of a dedicated public transport authority for Cork, it’s metropolitan area, and the Lee Valley. Now please put down your torches and pitchforks, I know that the thought of another state or semi-state body isn’t popular over here. However, this concept has been used on the continent for decades, and has so far worked pretty well, certainly well enough to present a major improvement over the status quo here in Cork.

These public transport authorities are regional bodies, usually bound to a metropolitan area or geographic region. They have a distinct identity, and are the principal bodies charged with planning and operating public transport in their respective regions. They design the bus/train/tram routes, develop the schedules, and decide which companies operate them. All revenue collected through ticket sales gets passed on by the transport companies to these authorities, who combine them with additional funding provided by local, state, and national governments, and use those funds to pay the operating companies, develop additional services, and so on.

Now, to be fair, I’m not advocating implementing the whole enchilada here in Cork right away, or even at all. I’m well aware of the legacy issues affecting public transport in Ireland, and have no intention of further aggravating them. Thankfully, it isn’t necessary. The beauty of this concept is that it is completely modular, and as long as you approach it right, you can implement parts of them, while leaving more contentious issues, such as putting routes out to tender, to the side for the time being. With regards to Cork, such a phased approach, following the establishment of such a body, could look as follows:

Phase 1 – Branding and Information

Phase 1A: A dedicated branding for all public transport in Cork is developed. While it will initially only be used for online resources, advertising material, and apps, it should from the outset be designed to look striking and immediately stand out from the “crowd” once it gets applied to vehicles. Ideally, this branding concept should already encompass vehicle exteriors and interiors, designs for bus stops of all sizes, and guidelines for ticket or information counters, and service centres. With regards to the vehicles, the endgame should be that they operate in a full public transport authority (PTA) livery, with only a decal near the door indicating the actual operating company.

Hanover's public transport outfit Üstra is a good example of a highly visible public transport branding. Whether it's buses, like on this photos from their Facebook feed...

Or even their light rail vehicles, they are immediately visible and stand out. That's what's needed in my eyes!

Phase 1B: A series of dedicated online and offline resources specifically aimed at public transport in Cork is launched, using the branding developed in Phase 1A. This should ideally be rolled out to existing Bus Éireann bus stops at this stage as well, however that part is flexible. At this stage, an info-mailing should be sent out to every household in Cork detailing what the purpose of the new transport authority is, what resources are available, and where to find them. Ideally, this would be accompanied by a region-wide advertising blitz. A strong social media presence on all major platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, WhatEver…) is crucial from Day One. Equally crucial is the fact that the social media team is not only present, but also active, and develops a certain “character” and personality, rather than just parroting some standard cookie cutter phrases.

Phase 2 – Initial Infrastructure Development

Phase 2A: As a matter of Urgency, the new public transport authority should set up its own ticketing and information center in the city centre. A high-profile site on Grand Parade or Patrick Street would be ideal. Whatever site is chosen, it is imperative that the new facility is visually striking, and easy to find. It will also be the first site that will apply the branding developed in Phase 1A.

Phase 2B: Operation of the Black Ash Park & Ride Facility is transferred from Cork City Council to the PTA, as is the operation of the setdown point on Lapp’s Quay. These would be the first two facilities to be fitted with the new bus stop designs from Phase 1A.

Phase 2C: Following a test phase on the Black Ash Park & Ride shuttle, the new stops are rolled out across the Cork bus network. Priority should be given to high visibility lines, particularly the line from Kent Station via Parnell Place to the airport, and the stop at Cork Airport. Additionally, a dedicated public transport counter should be set up at the airport as well. Other bus routes should follow on a line-by-line basis.

Phase 2D: At this stage, Coca Cola Zero Bikes should be integrated into the newly formed PTA. Bike Sharing systems are a crucial part of urban mobility, and their influence will only keep on growing in future years. In order to achieve the biggest synergies between public transport and bike sharing, both need to be operated by the same operator. This is especially true given An Rothar Nua's checkered track record in operating Coca Cola Zero Bikes.

Motorists will likely get a heart attack when they read this (not that I mind), but bikes, as well as systems like Coca Cola Zero Bikes, will become more and more important, and will require ever more infrastructure.

At this stage, with Phases 1 and 2 completed, we’d be looking at a visually consistent bus network, which is buttressed by easily accessible ticketing and information centers, and a strong and reliable online presence. All of this would have been achieved without putting any bus route or other services out to tender, leaving Bus Éireann completely untouched, save for a bit of advertising material available in the buses. What’s more, it would have been achieved with a minimum of financial investment or inconvenience caused by construction, without hindering any further development. Such development, putting bus routes out to tender, or bringing in new routes and operators, would most likely require to be authorised by a bill in the Dáil, which can be a dicey affair. However, once such a bill was passed, public transport in Cork could further be developed along the following lines:

Phase 3 – Initial Route Tenders and additional infrastructure development

Phase 3A: In order to “test the waters”, the first route bundle put out to tender should be new routes not yet operated by Bus Éireann. The first such route bundle could consist of an orbital service linking a series of major industrial and technology parks: Ballincollig, Model Farm, Cork Airport, Mahon, and terminating at Little Island; a service from the airport through the city centre to Blackpool, as well as a service from the airport to Midleton. These services would be the first to operate under the unified branding outlined in Phase 1A.

Phase 3B: Previously independent local services should be integrated into the new network. In particular, I’m thinking of the Cobh Connect service launched back in October 2018. As part of this integration, the route could be adapted to feed into the existing public transport network at a yet to be determined interchange. Of course, these services would also be operating under the new branding.

Phase 3C: In a combination of infrastructure construction and tendering, the PTA should supplement the existing Black Ash Park & Ride facility with several more at strategic points around Cork. My personal favourites would be a site out near Ovens, in order to capture the country bumpkins coming down from Kerry and West Cork, and the old railroad container terminal near Little Island, which is close enough to the Dunkettle Interchange to capture both traffic coming in from Midleton and from the M8 motorway. Naturally, both are just my suggestions and meant to illustrate the general concept.

Phase 4 – Tendering of core routes, reorganisation of fare collection and distribution

This phase will likely be the most controversial, as it directly attacks the elements that have dominated public transport since the birth of the Republic: Bus Éireann, and the public transport unions. However, there are good reasons for both steps, and once again, like all developments since the end of Phase 1, they are totally interchangeable.

Phase 4A: The core routes of the Cork city bus network are reorganised and put out to tender. Any such reorganisation should focus on creating two or three major transport axes, where interchange is easily possible at certain points in the network. Tenders should be organised along these lines, with several routes being put out to tender in one bundle, and in such a manner that it makes sense from an operational standpoint. A word about those tenders: Working conditions should be hard-coded into any tender, with union assistance and a dedicated oversight body.

Phase 4B: Currently, fare collection is the job of the bus driver. While it can certainly be convenient for passengers, it also considerably slows down embarkation, and drags stop times out unnecessarily. The introduction of Leap cards has alleviated this issue somewhat, however, many people still prefer to pay cash, for whatever reason. Apart from the operational issues, this also significantly increases the risk for bus drivers, as they are bound to have a significant amount of cash on them at any single time. In Phase 4B, this stops. Leap cards or NFC enabled Social Welfare passes become the only acceptable tickets for Cork buses. In order to ensure availability of tickets, EVERY bus stop will be equipped with at least one ticket machine capable of both dispensing Leap cards and topping them up. Granted, these ticket machines will be targets as well, but it takes a lot more effort to crack one of those than it takes to attack a bus driver, significantly reducing the risk of such attacks. Any proceeds generated by those machines, as well as tickets or Leap cards sold through other outlets would then be redistributed as describe further up.

Once we get to this stage, we‘d actually have reached what I would consider to be the best public transport setup available for Cork. And while I‘d of course love to see all phases above implemented, once Phase 2 has been implemented, any public transport system in Cork would be integrated enough for new additions like a light rail system, a BRT system, or my personal favourite, a river ferry along the lines of the ones run by HADAG in Hamburg, or the water buses in Oslo, to slot into place in a preexisting system, and not be standalone white elephants anymore, which would be a welcome change from the norm here in Ireland.

But why go for such a model? What advantages does it offer? In my eyes, the answers are obvious. The initial phases of such a project, 1A and 1B, can be implemented with a minimum of risk and capital. In fact, all that‘s needed is a handfull of staff to stay in contact with Bus Éireann and other operators, design and distribute the new schedules and keep them up to date, a few people to take care of the apps and social media platforms. In it‘s initial phase, I‘d say a twelve man team would be sufficient, which is a crucial factor in a country where spending money on public transport is considered about as important as alphabetically sorting the spice rack in your kitchen, while at the same time providing enough visibility for a good photo opportunity for whoever is minister for transport at the time. 
What‘s more, the approach, once Phase 1 is complete, is completely modular. Not enough money to build that customer service center I mentioned above? Stick to the Black Ash shuttle for the first phase. New bus stops are rolled out, but Dáil Éireann is unwilling to devolve public transport responsibilities to Cork? Just talk to Bus Éireann to get the new livery rolled out to the city buses. Many of the new buses, such as the latest generation double deckers and the new Mercedes Citaro single deckers are already equal to many city buses operating in Germany, so there wouldn‘t even be any need to flat out replace Bus Éireann on many routes. 

As much as people like to give out about Bus Éireann, their latest vehicles are actually quite good.

Take these Mercedes Benz Citaro buses for example. Bright modern interior, very spacious, and good passenger information systems. This should be the standard level of equipment for ALL buses.

The way I see it, such an approach provides the maximum amount of advantages, with the mimimum amount of financial investment and risk. With comparatively few resources, a mere pittance compared to the cost of building a light rail system, Cork can get a public transport system that is easy to understand for visitors, consistent, and more attractive for communters, and above all proven. As I mentioned in the introduction, regional public transport authorities have been operating in Europe for decades, and are the ideal solution to pull together the isolated, but promising elements that already exist. Lastly, such a system would be the ideal way for Cork to show real leadership in Ireland, and deliver something that no other city or metropolitan region in the Republic has managed so far.