Waterford pedestrian bridge built with shuttle bus – but they forgot to include space for it to turn
An artist's impression of the North Quays from the sustainable transport bridge.
A feasibility study published by the National Transport Authority (NTA) found that a shuttle bus connecting the new train station to Waterford city centre via the pedestrian bridge will not be possible.
Although the study listed a myriad of reasons why it couldn’t be done, there were two main themes.
Firstly, no turning point or depot facilities were included in the original plans for the pedestrian bridge and, according to the NTA, there is no legislative basis for a motorised vehicle to operate in a designated cycle track.
Although the bridge was built with the shuttle bus specifications in mind.
The feasibility study also reveals that the shuttle bus was not included in phase one of the planning application for the North Quays development.
According to the NTA, “Regular turning movements by a shuttle bus in this area could present safety concerns and may conflict with the intended character of the space and present accessibility challenges.”
Secondly, the shuttle bus was originally going to be privately funded to link a "major retail centre" to the city centre. But “with the absence of large-scale retail on the North Quays, the original rationale underpinning the shuttle bus concept has fundamentally changed".
The NTA has offered ‘BusConnects’ as a possible solution. They have proposed three new bus routes going from Bullygunner to Rockshire Road, SETU West to Slieverue and Whitfield Hospital to Abbey Park. These routes would require a multi-million euro investment per annum, but the NTA wrote that it will be their “priority” for public transport in Ireland.
The NTA predicts that these bus routes will take approximately five minutes to get from the transport hub to the Clock Tower – that same route currently takes eight minutes by car.
At the end of the study, the NTA also said that they are “happy” to continue engaging as a stakeholder if Waterford City and County Council explored an alternatively funded shuttle bus service or if they wanted to consider an “innovation-focused autonomous vehicle trial”.
