The Gluas

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Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

There probably are similar issues with Waterford as a considerable chunk of it's urban population apparently live in county Kilkenny. This owing to, in common with Limerick, the city being right up against the county boundary.

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None of that matters really as light rail only serves the population that lives close to it. This means you need population density along its line.

I don't use the Luas but it appears the Stephens Green line does a lot better as this goes through residential & office buildings the entire length & doesn't share the road with cars much. The other line does up the Naas road for a part of it with commercial parks on either side & very few passengers in that area.

What the difference between a tram and a bus?
It does not cost you a million pounds for a bus to go don a different route!!

Is a tram greener? No Electricity cost 4 times the amount of petrol/diesel.
There are losses converting mechanical into electrical and then again coverting it back into mechanical. It costs a fortune to install and if don't live on the line you are fooked.
What can a tram do that a bus can't? - Nothing. And a bus is a fraction of the cost
and can go on any route.

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

What the difference between a tram and a bus?

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Tram makes for nicer photo opportunity.

In theory electricity could be greener but then again almost all ours comes from fossil fuels.

The most efficient system I have heard about is dedicated bus routes in Curitiba, Brazil which is basically like a light rail system only using buses instead of trams. Aside from the fact they not glamorous for politicians the only problem with buses is they share the road. Would be huge savings as no need for rails or cables.

It is a lot easier to get people to leave their cars for trains and trams than it is for buses. Double or treble the number of buses, reduce waiting times and have more routes (and more direct routes) and I think people would switch. It would still take a massive investment though.

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Originally Posted by Macy

It is a lot easier to get people to leave their cars for trains and trams than it is for buses. Double or treble the number of buses, reduce waiting times and have more routes (and more direct routes) and I think people would switch. It would still take a massive investment though.

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Well where I am it is more expensive to get a bus. on some journeys it works out at over a £1 a mile, so unless your car does 5 miles to the gallon you won't be switching to the bus, and for a fully loaded car you would have to
do less than 1 mile a gallon (I always wanted a challaneger tank!!).

So the idea people will switch to public transport is a joke.

These tram schemes are just a corruption vehicle whereby tax payers money is tranfered to corrupt operators with the air of corrupt politicians and officials with lots of brown envelopes flying around.

The only reason they only do one or two routes, when in reality a typical city has upto, or over 100 bus routes, is because people would begin to smell a rat when the tram system was using 90% of the countries GDP.


The cost of tram systems typically causes a credit crunch and a run on the banks as has been proven. :D

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

Well where I am it is more expensive to get a bus. on some journeys it works out at over a £1 a mile, so unless your car does 5 miles to the gallon you won't be switching to the bus, and for a fully loaded car you would have to
do less than 1 mile a gallon (I always wanted a challaneger tank!!).

So the idea people will switch to public transport is a joke.

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The manner of Irish taxation on motoring will always encourage people to use their car once they have one. Taxes such as VRT and Motor Tax are the same no matter if you drive 10 miles or 1000 miles a week.

Gluas! FFS!

This must be some sort of p!sstake.

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Originally Posted by Schumi

That Limerick figure is misleading as a lot of suburbs are counted as Limerick County rather than Limerick City as the boundaries haven't been updated. I don't know if there are similar issues with Galway or Waterford.

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I'd imagine there are with Waterford but not Galway. Waterford and Limerick have separate car registration marks for city and county (L/LK and W/WD respectively), whereas Galway only has G. I'd imagine it ties in with your point, which is where I'm getting my conclusion. Not the most scientific, but hey.

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Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

Perhaps we could move Limerick a few miles to the north east. We'll take that whole south east Clare bit who's inhabitants daily choke our roads with their towbar-less jeeps and choke our air with their ...flasks of sweet tea and corned beef sandwiches. Meanwhile out in the desolate windswept west we can have a deeply moving ceremony where we hand the likes of Bruff and Glin over to Kerry to do with as Kerry sees fit. :cool:

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Outrageous :mad:
Leave Bruff alone, it is NOT one of those west county towns, its practically a suburb of Limerick city. No offence to Kerry, but NO! :mad:

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Originally Posted by pete

I don't use the Luas but it appears the Stephens Green line does a lot better as this goes through residential & office buildings the entire length & doesn't share the road with cars much. The other line does up the Naas road for a part of it with commercial parks on either side & very few passengers in that area.

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Wow, you really don't know Dublin do you? The stops on the Naas Road are Bluebell (obviously enough close to Bluebell and Drimnagh), Kylemore (which serves ballyfermot) and Red Cow (which serves Clondalkin). Do you honestly think these aren't huge population centres?

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Wow, you really don't know Dublin do you? The stops on the Naas Road are Bluebell (obviously enough close to Bluebell and Drimnagh), Kylemore (which serves ballyfermot) and Red Cow (which serves Clondalkin). Do you honestly think these aren't huge population centres?

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Excluding the Red Cow as that has large car park I have never noticed more than a few people queuing at Kylemore & Bluebell. I don't know if someone from Ballyfermot would trek out to the Luas to get into the City centre as bus would be more direct. On the long mile road side there is almost no residential population. I feel light rail works best if travels through population centres & not just nearby.

:confused:

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Originally Posted by KevB76

Outrageous :mad:
Leave Bruff alone, it is NOT one of those west county towns, its practically a suburb of Limerick city. No offence to Kerry, but NO! :mad:

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Unreserved apologies. I'd one of those moments where you're picturing one place (not Bruff) and sticking the wrong name of another place (...Bruff) on it. I'm thinking more of the Abbeyfeales, the Ballingarrys ...even the Shanagoldens. But enough about that on a thread about a light rail system for Galway city

...though I've a photograph taken of Shanagolden on a winter morn that's only slightly less hilarious than the GLUAS idea. I'll root it out.

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Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

Meanwhile out in the desolate windswept west we can have a deeply moving ceremony where we hand the likes of Bruff and Glin over to Kerry to do with as Kerry sees fit. :cool:

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Bruff is nowhere near Kerry. Closer to Tipperary.

Apologies. My indignation kicked in as soon as I read Lionel's unfounded comments and I rushed in to leave my mark before reading to the end of the thread and seeing that Kev got there first.

And to drag thingsmarginally back on topic as for the Gluas I'd be surprised if it was really all that viable tbh but there's nothing wrong with Galway CC exploring the idea surely? As long as they don't embark upon it anyway as a vanity project. And in actual terms Limerick's population is about 85,000. It's beyond belief that Raheen, Dooradoyle and Corbally aren't included in the city boundaries.