The Green Party proposal to cancel the N11 upgrade and convert 1 lane to a Bus Lane will cause total chaos in Wicklow.  Speaking to Eamonn Ryan, Leader of  the Green Party, on East Coast Radio I was surprised to hear that he wants to reduce the car lanes on the already jammed N11. It is essential that the bus lane is EXTRA to the existing 2 lanes South of Kilmacanoge and there must be many Express Buses.

North of Kilmacanoge there may well need to be 3 car lanes. A solution to Wicklow’s transport will need rail, bus and N11 improvements. We need to let the engineers study this and make their recommendations which are due next Summer. The Green Party is wrong to think Central Dublin solutions will work on this National Primary Route.

Previous press Release

The Green Party opposed ‘improving  the South East rail line’ in the Regional Planning Guidelines. I asked the Minister for Environment to override this and he has now altered the wording to ‘improve’ rail. Now the Green leader Eamonn Ryan says he will shelve upgrade plans for the N11.

In April 2015 I proposed that Rezoning in Wicklow should not take place unless Public Transport and the N11 had been improved. The Green Party & Fianna Fail voted against that as well and with only Fine Gael Councillors in favour this was defeated. Hence the present traffic jams which will get much worse in future.

The Green Party are against everything in Wicklow and will produce chaos. Currently Irish Rail keeps the Wicklow Rail line virtually empty at rush hour. In 2018 I produced a plan to improve Wicklow’s rail & bus services but this will need to be done with Bus Priority measures for Express Busses.