Eamon Ryan: Galway city has one of the worst transport systems in Europe

Transport Minister backs development of light rail in the city

Eamon Ryan disagreed with the Galway City Council executive, who have previously insisted that there is no need for a Luas in Galway.

Galway city has one of the worst transport systems in any European city, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has said as he backs the development of light rail in the city.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Ryan disagreed with the Galway City Council executive, who have previously insisted that there is no need for a Luas in Galway.

“This is a critical crunch for the city of Galway. Does Galway go with the outer orbital motorway sprawl model, which is inherently unsustainable in my mind because it’s car dependent,” Mr Ryan said.

“It sees a continuation of what’s happened in Galway in the last 20 years, which is the worst transport system in any Irish city and probably in any European city — where everyone lives on one side of the city and works on the other side and you don’t have proper transport infrastructure between the two.”

The proposed Galway ring road has been mired in delays over recent years. While it was first approved in 2021, this planning decision was later quashed by the High Court in 2022.

Mr Ryan has rejected claims by the Galway executive that there is no demand for a light rail project in the city.

“Now, the city executive has always said ‘oh no, there’s no demand for a Luas in Galway. There isn’t the numbers to justify it’. I don’t agree with them.”

Mr Ryan described Galway as a “spectacularly beautiful city”, but that it has been “ill-served by a badly planned sprawled model of development”.

He added that the city is “coming around” to becoming an active travel and public transport-oriented city, rather than being a city of “cars and motorways”.

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The former Green Party leader said that he believed light rail could be built in Galway, with the project first starting through the advent of bus corridors throughout the city.

“You start to build up the public transport corridor and then you switch to light rail,” he said.

“The same in Cork. You build in Cork the bus corridor first and then you build the Cork light rail on the same route.”