The Irish Times

Cork prides itself on being the first urban area in Ireland to have adopted a land use and transportation study. But the LUTS plan of 1978 turned out to be less than the sum of its parts; only the roads element of it has been delivered. The Jack Lynch Tunnel, the Southern Ring Road and airport access route (partly installed in the old Kinsale railway line cutting) all evolved from the LUTS. However, nothing was done to re-open the Youghal railway line at least as far as Middleton, which LUTS also recommended. Since the LUTS strategy focused on developing a necklace of satellite towns around Cork city - Ballincollig, Blarney, Carrigaline, Cobh, Douglas, Macroom, Mallow and Middleton - good transport links were vital. But throughout the 1980s and 1990s, no funding was available for public transport. "At one stage, we were in danger of losing the Cobh line, but by the dint of getting an additional train set, business went up by 60 per cent and they couldn't close it down then," recalls Mr Nicholas Mansergh, senior planner with Cork County Council. The key was to provide a more frequent train service.