Luas Cork City Centre

As with other older European cities, crossing through the historic core of the city centre presents particular challenges. The tram needs to serve the heart of the city, whilst also minimising impact on sensitive building structures and integrating with the surrounding streetscape.

St Patrick’s Street to Kent Station

The proposed Emerging Preferred Route crosses the city centre via St Patrick’s Street, MacCurtain Street and Kent Station, with a tram stop at each of these locations. Picking up from Washington Street, the route turns left onto Grand Parade towards St Patrick’s Street. It is proposed that the corridor will be primarily public transport only as far as St Patrick’s Bridge, with some servicing of the street permissible.

There are a series of tight curves around which the Luas vehicles must navigate, resulting in a couple of pinch-points at the corner of Washington Street/Grand Parade and at the junction of St Patrick’s Street/Grand Parade, with a possible impact on the corner building “Finn’s Corner”, subject to further detailed design.

As the design progresses, solutions will be developed to ensure an integrated and permeable cycle network for the city centre, while avoiding Washington Street/ Grand Parade and the junction of St Patrick’s Street.

Daunt’s Square will be pedestrianised, and vehicular access to Daunt’s Square/Paul Street from the south will no longer be permitted.

Once on St Patrick’s Street, the route continues eastwards, maintaining the wide footpaths and streetscape of this important public space in the heart of the city. Crossing St Patrick’s Bridge and onto MacCurtain Street, the route shares with buses and general traffic in an eastbound direction and with buses only in a westbound direction.

As with other streets along the route, St Patrick’s Street and MacCurtain Street will require works to accommodate the new Luas tracks including utility diversions and modifications to kerb lines and footpaths.

From the junction with Lower Glanmire Road, the route travels towards Kent Station via Alfred Street, sharing with buses in an eastbound direction. A Luas stop will be integrated into the proposed new entrance at the rear of Kent Station allowing easy transfer to commuter and inter-city rail services, buses, and other interchange facilities.

The EPR then travels southwards on a new public transport bridge over the River Lee from Horgan’s Quay to the south docklands at Furlong Street.

Kennedy Quay to Páirc Uí Chaoimh

Once across the new public transport bridge over the River Lee, the route continues southwards along Furlong Street before turning eastwards on to Centre Park Road, where the tracks will be fully segregated from other traffic. Some land-acquisition will be required at the Southern Milling site.

The EPR will be compatible with the South Docklands Area Based Transport Assessment and integrated with the future Docklands Development, creating an attractive streetscape for public transport, active travel, and access to the docklands and the Marina. The proposed configuration here includes a segregated Luas alignment on grass-track, a two-way road carriageway and bi-directional cycleways and footpaths. Through avenue management and careful landscaping, it is proposed to enhance the tree-lined avenue of Centre Park Road and the Marina setting.

At the Centre Park Road/Marquee Road junction the EPR turns southwards before reaching Monahan Road, where the route runs along the southern boundary of the newly developed Marina Park.

Monahan Road will be partly realigned to the south to make space for the Luas corridor while limiting as far as possible impacts on the newly developed Marina Park and the mature trees in the area.

After crossing Monahan Road, the Luas corridor will pass to the south of the road, and at this location a Luas stop with a three-track configuration is proposed to serve the stadium and to facilitate possible service turnback towards the city centre at off-peak times.

The proposed three-track configuration will enable higher Luas capacity services when big events are taking place at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Some land-take is required at this location to facilitate the proposed stop and the incline of the track alignment from Horgan’s Quay to the south docklands at Mill Road.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh to Mahon Point

From Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the EPR runs southbound on Maryville, up a steep hill to reach the junction with Blackrock Road, sharing with local access traffic only. Regrading works are necessary at the lower part of Maryville to enable Luas services to operate along this section of the route. The EPR then crosses Blackrock Road and on to Churchyard Lane where a portion of land-take will be required to facilitate the alignment. This includes the demolition of the Venue Bar, a well-known Ballintemple landmark. It is proposed to reinstate this corner site as part of the works, in keeping with the Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) status of the village.

The EPR continues southbound on Churchyard Lane sharing with general traffic, which will be permitted for local access only, until the Churchyard Lane/ Boreenmanna Road junction. Existing on-street parking on Churchyard Lane will be relocated - some on Churchyard Lane itself and some to the rear of Churchyard Lane, at the entrance to Ashcroft Estate.

From the Boreenmanna Road junction, the wider road offers the opportunity to partially segregate the EPR whilst maintaining a northbound-lane for general traffic and the provision of segregated cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. The boundary to the quarry may be impacted at this location and careful consideration will be given to landscape reinstatement and to the restoration of the quarry’s natural setting.

At the southern end of Churchyard Lane, the EPR turns eastwards on to Skehard Road. The proposed BusConnects Sustainable Transport Corridor (STC) J proposes a four-lane configuration on Skehard Road until such time.

There are small sections of land-take required to implement the proposed scheme successfully, towards the eastern end of Skehard Road. At the Blackrock Avenue junction, the EPR leaves Skehard Road and turns southbound on to Mahon Link Road, where the alignment will run on segregated track on the west side of the road, parallel to the existing Greenway. The existing tree-lined kerb on the western side of Mahon Link Road will be maintained.

A two-lane configuration will be adopted to the east side of the EPR for general traffic, which will result in some land-take and replanting along the eastern property boundaries.

The EPR will continue southbound following the road alignment to the proposed terminus northeast of the Mahon Link Road/City Gate junction. Segregated cycling and pedestrian facilities will be provided along Mahon Link Road and will lead to the terminus where a proposed potential Mobility Hub would promote and enhance transport interchange opportunities between private car, public transport, and active travel users.

The Mahon Link Road/City Gate junction will also be upgraded as part of the BusConnects proposals, providing enhanced pedestrian and cycling facilities and better connectivity to Mahon Point Shopping Centre.