Letter to the Editor: 'We need to seek alternatives to road transport'

Dear Sir,

I read with interest Senator Garret Ahearn’s article in The Nationalist March 3 edition page 13. In particular the Senator’s argument that a predicted rise in population should require us to build more roads.

Senator Ahearn mentions that our population is set to grow by one million by the year 2040 taking our current level from approximately five million to roughly six million.

In this the Senator is in accordance with the Eurostat predictions of 2008 which put our potential growth to a population of 6.7 million by 2060.

However it was the period between 2004 and 2009 that saw a massive road building program in order to accommodate the very increase Senator Ahearn now says requires yet more tarmac.

During that time Ireland built an additional 475 km of motorway and had 385km more under construction leading us to have a far higher road density than most of Europe.

A report from the Department of Transport in 2018 on transport trends puts us as having 20.9km of road per 1,000 people as compared to the European average of just 9.6km with the highly industrial and advanced Germany recording a road density of a miserly 2.8 km per 1,000 people.

In total Ireland has a combined public road length of 99,830km!

I wonder has the Senator ever heard of the phrase “induced demand”.

This is the phenomenon whereby new roads actually increase traffic numbers not just on the new roads but also on the older roads around it.

“Induced demand” is an accepted concept in all modern transport planning and is explained quite nicely in “Generated Traffic and Induced Travel Implications for Transport Planning” February 11, 2022, by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute.

I believe we need to seek alternatives to road transport both for commuters and freight and I am ever hopeful that the recently undertaken Strategic Rail Review which is to look at a whole Ireland rail network and states: “The Review expands on the commitment under the New Decade, New Approach agreement to examine the feasibility of a high/higher speed rail link between Belfast, Dublin and Cork and will look at ways to improve our current rail infrastructure, including the feasibility of high/higher speeds and electrification, better connections to the North-West, and role of rail in the efficient movement of goods.”

Their website is https://strategicrailreview.com/ and I recommend everyone to visit it.

Senator Ahearn may have made a submission to the review as I am led to believe Tipperary County Council has done; and I hope so as Tipperary is uniquely positioned to benefit from increased investment in railways having as we do both the North-South and the East-West lines passing through us.

The Senator quotes Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA who says: “Anything that improves access to strategic sites and business technology sites, anything that shortens commuting distances, opens up access to larger urban areas and connects them is clearly positive from an investment perspective.”

A more succinct description of a railway I cannot think of but, of course, investment in railways, whilst beneficial for the people of Ireland does not necessarily suit the vultures looking to profit from increased land prices.

It is time to finally bury the dead horse which is the N24 improvement scheme, the destruction it would bring along with the attacks on health, physical and mental, associated with road pollution renders it unviable in the context of alternatives that already exist and just need upgrading.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Senator when he says “let’s see if common sense prevails!”

Yours etc.,

Alasdair MacDonald

Kilburry West,

Cloneen,

Tipperary.

0879805140