Cork City to get more bus services with shorter wait times

Following the formal expansion of the city boundary in 2019, the proposed new network is also expected to improve public transport to areas like Little Island, Cobh, Carrigaline, Ringaskiddy, Glanmire, Ballincollig and Blarney. File picture: Larry Cummins

More bus services with shorter wait times should be delivered in Cork City under proposals contained in a new draft bus network report which will be published on Tuesday.

The details will be spelt out by the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Bus Éireann at the launch on Tuesday of the draft network report which will shape the expanded city’s bus network for the next two decades.

It represents one of the biggest overhauls of the city’s bus routes, timetables and fares structure in decades, and follows a “blank slate review” which was launched in July with an invitation to the public to get involved in the process.

The NTA asked people to consider a number of key issues, including whether the new network should have shorter walks to a bus stop or shorter waits for a bus, and if routes should be designed to allow for more interchange to facilitate greater bus frequency and journey simplicity.

1,000 submissions

More than 1,000 submissions were made.

Transport consultants from Jarrett Walker & Associates, a US-based firm which specialises in designing metropolitan public transport systems and which helped redesign the new Dublin area bus network, as well as networks in Houston, Texas, Moscow and Auckland, have been working with Bus Éireann, Systra and with Cork city and county councils, on the new network.

It is understood their draft proposals to be published on Tuesday will lead to an increase in the number and frequency of bus services, will bring more people closer to a high-frequency bus route, and should also result in shorter waits at bus stops.

And following the formal expansion of the city boundary in 2019, the proposed new network is also expected to improve public transport to areas like Little Island, Cobh, Carrigaline, Ringaskiddy, Glanmire, Ballincollig and Blarney.

More public consultation

The draft network will be open to more public consultation with a view to implementing the final proposals from 2023.

The redesign of the city’s bus network is one of the nine key elements of BusConnects Cork, which is fundamental to realising the ambition of the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy, which aims to increase the number of people using public transport in Cork fourfold by 2040.

The infrastructure element of BusConnects Cork, the delivery of more than 100km of bus lanes, is being addressed through a separate process.