Irish Rail agrees to provide staff to help during any Greystones DART disruption.

I found that during DART disruptions in Greystones no reliable information was provided as the station was often unmanned. The electronic station sign conflicted with the ‘Trains Live’ App and there was no announcement. This meant that passengers did not know to take the bus which stopped across the road.

I wrote to the Chief Executive and after some reminders he has apologised and agreed to a protocol that if there is disruption they will send staff who can advise waiting passengers about alternative busses or other transport.

‘generally the DART is reliable but people, especially the many visitors on it, are confused when disrupted and no information is provided. This will help passengers find alternatives’ said Cllr Derek Mitchell.

N11 Traffic Jams & National Infrastructure Plan. Lobby Now.

 Decisions on this will be taken soon and getting the funding will involve intense competition from other areas of the country. If you are stuck in these traffic jams or just want better transport write to the T.Ds ask them to get this included. A summary of The Strategic Plan for the N11 is:

 Phase 1: improve safety at Kilmacanoge with a separate lane as on Lucan Road.

 Phase 2: 3^rd lane from M50 to Fassaroe. Mostly this can be constructed on existing median so is relatively simple.

 Phase 3: 3 rd lane to Kilmacanoge, Bray South junction major upgrade, service lanes on West side and in places on East side.

 Phase 4: limited improvements South of Kilmacanoge to Coyne’s Cross which are not yet needed.

 Traffic is now very bad and getting rapidly worse, many mornings backed up from Kilmacanoge to Newcastle junction (10 km). Traffic rat-runs through Greystones and Bray to avoid the N11 causing severe congestion in towns. Many houses are now being built in Wicklow and Cherrywood, now building, will make it far worse. Phase 1 & 2 will be of some benefit but not much to the Northbound jams South of Kilmacanoge, that needs Phase 3. No road improvements are included for Glen o’ Downs nor any road by Little Sugar Loaf. The N11 is the only non motorway road section from the Border to Gorey and the 50 year old design is way out of date.

 Public Transport improvements are also needed but I don’t think they are listed for the TII Plan. Short Term measures should be:

Bus. Express buses from Wicklow/Wexford with Park n’ Ride at Ashford,  Kilpeddar, Glenview and Enniskerry turnoff. Some buses along M50 to Sandyford & Red Cow LUAS stop at least at rush hour. This needs N11 improved.

Train. Increase 2 morning Wicklow diesel trains from 4 to 8 carriages. An extra DART from Greystones at 07.21 in morning and evening return. Needs 8 more DART carriages which are only ordered infrequently and take 3 years to build. Increase space at Greystones Park n’ Ride.

 ‘I urge people to write to T.Ds this week and demand implementation of this plan’ said Cllr Derek Mitchell (FG).

Ends.

Update on Fairfield Park 250917

Cllr Derek Mitchell welcomed the rapid construction of the Boardwalk in Greystones Harbour and the protection of the North Beach. The picture shows sections of the Boardwalk which have been lifted into place.

On the North Beach 5,000 cu m of shingle was placed in August to compensate for erosion in previous years and rocks were placed to protect the very old town dump. This is being done by the developer as part of the Harbour contract.

]]> http://derekmitchell.ie/2017/09/greystones-boardwalk-construction-advancing-well/feed/ 0 http://derekmitchell.ie/2017/08/greystones-north-beach-protection-works-and-path-improvement/ http://derekmitchell.ie/2017/08/greystones-north-beach-protection-works-and-path-improvement/#comments Fri, 04 Aug 2017 17:11:02 +0000 http://derekmitchell.ie/?p=1767

Greystones North Beach will be closed for protection works until the 19^th August. 5,000 cu m. of shingle beach nourishment is being imported and placed on the beach.

The boulders protecting the old dump have been shifted by the waves at the North end and the photo shows where 25 boulders have been imported to reinforce it.

In September the Cliff Walk will be rerouted through the construction site which will be smoother and an improvement. The present walk via the beach is rough and difficult underfoot.

The Council and the Tidy Towns work hard to keep the area attractive. Currently the area has pay parking from 12 to 18.00

Commercial Fishing pier in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Comparison to Greystones

Commercial fishing boat problems in Greystones:

• Moorings only 8 months a year. Difficulty insuring vessels?
• Store tenders in huts.
• Lift to waters edge.
• Row to moored fishing boat and climb up.
• Difficult to load from a small boat.
• Load from pier, install crane and no power, no power or water on pier.
• Need skilled/insured crane operator in public space. In DL can be lifted from deck to pier by hand.
• Where park van. Pier too narrow. Access control for vehicles. Pay parking.
• Dun Laoghaire loads of boxes, diesel, old nets on pier. Seagulls and droppings. Houses are much nearer in Greystones.
• Cost of maintaining swing mooring.

It’s not going to work.

Some people who fish off Greystones use this Dun Laoghaire pier to load/unload/moor/park vans. This internal pier is 13.5 m wide (Greystones 7.5m) and much lower, the tops of boats being above the pier level. In Greystones it is at least 5m higher as it has been designed as a promenading pier so that people can see over the sea defences. This makes loading/unloading much more difficult and increases the danger of falling.

In order to separate the vans from people the DL pier is fenced off allowing a 2m strip for pedestrians and 11.5m for vans/net and fishing box/diesel storage etc. A significant amount of ropes etc are trip hazards on the pier edge. This fencing off will be difficult to achieve on the much narrower Greystones Pier.

There is a strong smell of fish and diesel on the pier in DL. The pier is stained with oil. Also seagulls tugging at the fish boxes and droppings everywhere. The nearest homes are 300m plus away and the smell had declined at that distance. In Greystones the homes will be about 100m away and will be much more affected by smell. In DL the marina is well away and not much affected by seagull droppings. In Greystones it is very close.

The inner harbour in DL is reasonably calm in storms. The moorings laid in Greystones will only be safe for 8 months. The cost each year of getting divers to inspect, raise and lay them will be €6,600. Charging a third of this to each fisherman will be expensive compared to DL which charges about €800 a year to berth alongside. There will still be the problem of the remaining 4 months and poor or no unloading facilities.

Procurement of Refurbished and New Diesel railcars.

 You are procuring improved carriages, I ask that you get them so that the doors in a limited number of carriages can be opened at short platform stations. These are normal in most other commuter railways but the IR carriages must open all doors on the train which means 8 carriages cannot be used on lines with short platforms (Kilcoole & Rathdrum for example). This will improve the service to Greystones and Wicklow by allowing longer 8 carriage trains in place of the 4 (sometimes 3) carriage ones used for the rush hour diesel services (6.54 & 7.51 ex Greystones).

The latter is standing room only from Wicklow and revised carriages can provide a better service to Greystones and Kilcoole. Greystones is the 5^th busiest suburban station even though there are only a third of DARTS compared to the other stations. This results in the 7.30, 8.00 and 8.30 being crowded. I believe the 8.00 is the busiest train in the country and a longer preceding diesel would relieve pressure. Hence the importance of extra carriages on the diesels.

There is also space in the timetable to run an extra DART at 7.21, by running it down early, even with the present track and signalling system. I would ask that the carriage order provides for this if extra carriages are needed.

The Council has provided the largest Park n’ Ride site (450+ spaces) and largest bike parking (90 spaces) of any DART Station. I am keen to expand these but there needs to be a commitment from IR to improve the service. The limited number of trains produces a peak load and long queues to get off the platform, out of the station and out of the Park n’ Ride which should be addressed by more trains, as mentioned, and station modifications. Cycle parking inside the station could also be accommodated.

The future ‘10 minute’ DART service is billed as an improvement. For Greystones you are planning a worse service with no extra trains and a 5.5 minute increase in journey time (12% increase). This will encourage people to use cars in conflict with sustainable development. The Development targets handed down to the Council are for an extra 4,000 houses in Greystones and many more in Newtown and Wicklow Town and a better transport offering is required for this.

The walk on the inside of the marina will be closed when this is going on and the Cliff Walk will be through the housing area. Building the apartments will start when the Boardwalk is complete but it will remain closed until the apartments are finished because of the danger when the building work is so close.

About 80 houses have now been sold and its good to see this moving towards completion.

More shingle and some rocks will be brought in over the Summer to protect the North Beach.