Route for A5 upgrade?

Dunwunderin

Great news!
Perhaps we can use the saved money to upgrade the rail line now West of the Bann instead of waiting until next year?

We have the new trains but when do we get the new track to run them on like the rest of the rail system?

jadedson

I thought it was madness anyway. I was in favour of road upgrades. There are sections which could be widened with a passing lane introduced, and other areas where a right turn lane would help the flow of traffic. The bits at Omagh, Newtonstewart and Strabane are pretty good (and incidentally built on the line of the old train track so it's a no go to re-use that!) so if they could just sort out the bits north of Strabane, and most importantly how it feeds into the city. The bit between Omagh and Newtonstewart is a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty so I know development is more sensitive, but I still think there's room for road widening there with a climbing lane in some places.

As ever, they didn't need to spend money on consultation, they should have just asked me!!!! lol.

BigAl94

Maybe they can now give priority to the Enniskillen bypass as the traffic in the town has to be the biggest problem in NI.

Golden_Anemone

Dunwunderin wrote: »

Great news!
Perhaps we can use the saved money to upgrade the rail line now West of the Bann instead of waiting until next year?

The lead-in times for public sector procurement make this impossible. European law dictates that certain lengthy and complex procedures are followed which all take an inordinate amount of time. It's frustratingly difficult for departments to spend big sums of money that become available in the second half of a financial year.

Old_Git

why was the Irish government going to pay for this ?
Surely this is in the wee North ?
I heard something on the news saying this was agreed under the St Andrews agreement ,not sure why that would be .

Bribrian_2

Old_Git wrote: »

I heard something on the news saying this was agreed under the St Andrews agreement ,not sure why that would be .

You've never heard of wee bribes to get folk to sign things...
As this was part of the St.Andrews Agreement then there's nothing to stop any others from backing away & tearing it up now.........

warmhands.coldheart

jadedson wrote: »

I thought it was madness anyway. I was in favour of road upgrades. There are sections which could be widened with a passing lane introduced, and other areas where a right turn lane would help the flow of traffic. The bits at Omagh, Newtonstewart and Strabane are pretty good (and incidentally built on the line of the old train track so it's a no go to re-use that!) so if they could just sort out the bits north of Strabane, and most importantly how it feeds into the city. The bit between Omagh and Newtonstewart is a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty so I know development is more sensitive, but I still think there's room for road widening there with a climbing lane in some places.

As ever, they didn't need to spend money on consultation, they should have just asked me!!!! lol.

I completely agree, About 80% of the existing road could be very easily widened with minimal of work. It was never a financially viable project. I would also argue against the fact that it “would bring thousands of jobs to the West”. I would argue the opposite, I would say it would just mean people could drive to Belfast quicker so potentially a lot of the smaller rural towns could actually lose out.
Also like all big developments like this, there isn’t even any guarantee that it would benefit local construction jobs massively.

They should just use the £400Million from Stormont and widen the road that is there.

CL

Old_Git wrote: »

why was the Irish government going to pay for this ?
Surely this is in the wee North ?
I heard something on the news saying this was agreed under the St Andrews agreement ,not sure why that would be .

I heard on the radio the Irish TD saying it was to improve access to Donegal and LetterKenny

NAR

A quarter of the total amount that was going to be spent on this project was for land purchase, mainly from farmers. Hopefully the money can instead be used to build roads/houses/schools/hospitals and thus put money into peoples' pockets and help get the economy back on it's feet. This money all has to be spent by 2015, so I hope they don't drag their feet squabbling "up the hill."

A.L.D.A

seatzie wrote: »

don't live anywhere near the A5 but lets face it if its a railway in Northern Ireland its going to be overpriced anyway and be cheaper to go by car - eg Belfast to Bangor 2 adults 1 child £12 return - its a 24 mile round trip - £2 in the car why would you get on the train? - Dublin £32 return each - in my Diesel car £20 return for a full car and save 15p per litre buying Diesel down there, why would you use the train?

sorry hijacking the thread but making the point I don't think trains would ever become the norm here

From where I live the train is cheaper and quicker than me travelling on my own into Belfast by car, as many do!!!

The numbers using trains are increasing as investment increases. However I do agree that prices generally on public transport do need to improve. When two people find the train cheaper than the car you may start to see fundamental changes in behaviour.

Of course the other problem is that our inspired Planning Service has ensured the long term need for cars by scattering essential developments all over the place remote to anything but the car. However I have the feeling that the cost of motoring is going to steadily increase unless someone finds a different fuel source. So long term that may have all sorts of impacts on how we travel and the value of property by location.