Thomil's Random Ramblings

Public Transport in Cork – A contentious topic to say the least, and certainly one that I apparently can’t escape as a blogger. A few months ago, the rather ambitious Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy was released in draft form. I never got around to writing a post about that as I had some rather more pressing issues to deal with, namely a new job that wasn‘t running smoothly at the time. Still, it was almost impossible to escape the talk about one of the core components of this draft strategy: A light rail line running from Ovens in the west of the city to Mahon in the east. It was an audacious move, and I‘m convinced that it will never see the light of day.  I‘ll admit, I was absolutely thrilled by the idea at first, but after spending some time thinking about it, it became clear to me that not only would this project never see the light of day, it would be a spectacularly bad fit for Cork. Now, don‘t get me wrong, I‘m a fan of any type of rail transport, and would absol...

For a keen supporter of public transport like me, the last month or two haven’t been the easiest, with a coalition of fossils and egomaniacs here in Cork bringing down the partial closure of Patrick Street and its use as a public transit corridor. At the same time, BusConnects Cork, 200 million € worth of new vehicles, lines, ticketing principles and other much needed improvements promised in the governments Ireland 2040 plan seem to have taken an express bus to nowhere as they’ve completely disappeared from view. Anyway, I had a day off from work on Thursday, due to it being a bank holiday in the main market that I cover, Germany, and as luck would have it, I’ve been dealing with a bloody migraine all day.  As I’m sitting here on the couch, nursing my head and cursing everyone and no one indiscriminately (Hey, I’m an equal opportunity hater when I’m in a bad mood ;) ), a video on the Facebook Page of RTÉ News catches my eye. Apparently, the city of Zhuzhou in China has be...

So, on Friday, the Irish Government presented its grand investment strategy for the next 22 years. Ireland 2040, as this plan is called, is a massive infrastructure investment program that will finally bring Ireland up to speed, and make it ready for the coming challenges according to the government. Of course, the opposition wasted no time in calling foul, with Labour party calling it a failure only twenty minutes after the plan had been announced. Well, if anyone knows failure in Ireland, it's Labour, but back to the topic at hand. The plan will see a total of 116 billion Euros spent over the next twenty years, funding pretty much everything from a new runway at Dublin Airport, and a metro for the capital, to new and much needed motorways, hospitals, ports, the much delayed rural broadband rollout, housing, public transport improvements, and much, much more. In fact, Ireland 2040 is split into two distinct documents. One is the National Planning Framework, which in fact go...