Government will do 'whatever it can' to accelerate delivery of Cork Luas, says Taoiseach
Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the launch of the preferred route for Cork City's light rail system. The scheme also includes a proposed 1,000 vehicle park and ride facility near Ballincollig.
The Taoiseach says the State will do whatever it can to accelerate delivery of the multi-billion euro Cork Luas amid mounting calls for an end-of-decade start date.
However, Micheál Martin refused to be drawn on delivery timelines or on a price tag for the 18km light rail system as he launched its emerging preferred route for eight weeks of public consultation.
“I want to accelerate the timeline. I’m wary of other projects in the past and if you give a specific timeline, people are back onto you in terms of meeting those times,” he said.
“Our objective in government is to do whatever [we] can effectively and in a timely manner but also it has to be a genuine consultation process with the public.”
The proposed route runs 18km east-west, linking Ballincollig and Mahon Point, with 25 stops including at Munster Technology Institute’s (MTU) main campus at Bishopstown, Cork University Hospital (CUH), University College Cork (UCC), the city centre, Kent train station, Cork docklands, Blackrock, and Mahon.
The scheme also includes a proposed 1,000 vehicle park and ride facility near Ballincollig, a new public transport bridge connecting Kent Station to Kennedy Quay in the south docks, and a ‘mobility hub’ in Mahon.
But there was shock in Ballintemple with maps showing tram lines running through the heart of a much-loved sports bar.
Kate Tierney, who runs The Venue near Páirc Uí Chaoimh with Con Dennehy, said they fear the pub faces demolition.
“No-one involved in the project came to us beforehand to say the route was going through the pub,” she said.
“A friend of Con’s sent him a print-out of the map and we had to look it up and based on the maps we saw, the whole pub could be CPO’d.
“We had one of our regular customers in later in the day, sitting in his usual spot, and others were joking with him saying ‘that’s where the trams will be running — maybe you could get a job as a linesman?’
“But if this goes ahead, it will render the whole site unviable.”
The Ballincollig Business Association welcomed the draft route, but flagged some “shortcomings”.
“It could be the makings of the town,” Emer Cassidy said.
"But we would have initial concerns about the proposed loop of the town and we see it as a missed opportunity by not taking the route further west.
“Half the town’s population, about 12-13,000 people, live at the western side of the town, and there are about 3,000 people working in Dell.
"We think the route should go the one of two extra miles west. We look forward to engaging in the consultation.”
Lord Mayor, Dan Boyle, who as a TD in 2006 proposed a light rail route for Cork, described the publication of the draft route as a positive day but just a “point on the journey”. He added:
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said her party wants to see work on the project start by 2030.
“Of course we want the requisite public consultation process to take its course but we are now at a very advanced stage of the process. This has been some years already in genesis. We believe things should now move on swiftly and we will be pushing government now to ensure that it does move ahead at pace,” she said.
Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, echoed that timeline demand.
"It could be up to 15 years before passengers are on it. We need to be starting on the construction by the end of the decade,” he said.
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