Candidate Web Site

		*Candidate Web Site* North & East Ward Kieran Cunnane
	*East of the River*

Renmore.. Mervue.. Ballybane.. Ballybritt.. Doughiska.. City Centre.. Tirellan.. Menlo.. Sandy Rd.. Riverside.. Castlegar..

Kieran's draft public transport plan for Galway is as follows:

One Quality Bus Corridor running from Barna to Oranmore through via the Western distributor road, Westside, Newcastle, Tirellan, Ballybritt Industrial Estate, Parkmore and ending up in Ardaun.
A Priority Bus Lane from Barna through Salthhill to the City Centre and on to Renmore and Ardaun. The Renmore section could also in time become a QBC if the side of the train track across Lough Atalia and out to Ardaun is made available.
The Service should be supplemented by six radial routes from the City Centre, three of which service the remaining populated areas within the City and the other three going out to the Satellite towns of Moycullen, Claregalway and out the Headford Road.
The remaining areas could be serviced by shuttle buses (in green) which will link up to the bus routes.

Black = priority routes

Green = shuttles

Other colours = radial routes

The aim is to get from A to B and home to work, education or leisure no matter where you live in the City. We haven't seen a change in public transport in Galway in donkey's years. A radical change is one of the Green's core goals in local Government.

How this fits into the Western rail Corridor:

The Galway Greens proposed the Western Rail Corridor as a condition for entering Government. This motion was historically passed at our National Convention on 12-14th March 2004 in the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill.

Regionally, commuter rail from Oranmore, Athenry, Tuam and Gort to Galway based on the Western Rail Corridor is a large part of our local vision in the Greens. As the IDA park in the Oranmore / Athenry area comes on stream, east Galway will become revitalised. This means commuter rail from New Inn, Ballinasloe and even Athlone become a possibility, with Loughrea linked to the system by bus or shuttle service. We could also see commuter rail stations at Ardaun, Ballyloughaun and Renmore. To the south Ennis can also be linked with Galway as it presently is with Limerick.

In local Government, the greens would radically change public transport in Galway City and the region. Our goals are:

QBC Buses every 10 minutes. Long term this would reduce to 6 minutes.
More school buses. At the moment, buses are full before many school children can board. We have issues with the "2 miles as the crow files" stipulation for school buses, and will look at "2 miles by road" as more appropriate in an urban setting.
Making Galway a disabled, elderly, child, cyclist and pedestrian safe City. We a City where children can safely cycle to school and all road users are safe.
Integrated ticket prices for train park and ride users.
Single bus fares for indirect bus journeys.

We will examine best practice around the world for Cities of comparable population to Galway, taking the City's predicted growth into account.