Transport « Thurles Information

It Happens Between Stops From The Pen Of CIE Staff

The town of Thurles enjoys quick and easy accessibility by both train and road and as Thurles Railway Station is on the Inter-City line, there is an excellent train service with hourly trains to and from Dublin and excellent services also to Cork, Limerick and Killarney. Express buses, presently operated by Bus Éireann, also call daily to the railway station trafficking passengers to the outer areas of the county.

For me long train and bus journeys can be boring so I always unsure to accompany myself with some light reading material.

Talking of bus and train journeys and reading material, reminds me of the new splendid publication ‘It Happens Between Stops‘ which is a collection of short-stories, articles, essays, poems and a play written by current and former employees of the CIE group of companies. There is something for everyone in this collection and here is just a brief sample;

“The Eclipse on the Cheap” By John Bolton.

The morning news told of a full load of Concorde passengers who had paid some €2,000 for a figure of eight over Tenerife to see the eclipse. This way you got to see it from both sides of the plane twice.

For me, I loaded up my single decker to go to Dalkey. I got to Booterstown when I got this eerie feeling. I noticed the light change, but before I pulled back into the traffic, I noticed the start of the eclipse in the dark glass sun visor. The time was spot on between 11.18am and 11.22 am.

While watching this, an elderly lady asked if I was OK.
I replied, “It’s the eclipse, do you want to see it?”

She and all the rest queued up the centre aisle to see this from the drivers’ seat. I got a great round of applause at 11.25am, when it was all over.

I would be barking up the wrong tree to stick them for £2,000 each.

It Happens Between Stops

“Autumn Day” By Cathy Hickey

I am walking in the woods,
The Autumn wind takes the leaves from the trees,
They fall around me
And crunch beneath my feet.
I watch them dancing on the wind
And think of You.

You would wonder at this,
The sound of the river rushing by,
Breathing the sweet crisp air.
Absorbing the warmth of colour,
Enjoying the sight of a young squirrel
Busily preparing for Winter,
At the base of the magnificent old tree,

Simplistic, yet so complex,
This cycle of Life…….Nature…..
It saddens me to think, yet again,
You are missing this moment.
Then it occurs to me that you are not,
Because you are here, walking with me.
Sharing this joy !

I am not the only person to enjoy this fine witty publication, containing well observed and sometimes moving material.

It is, in the words of Lee Dunne, “As an entertaining well written, ‘dip in for a shot’ kind of book, this publication does not disappoint. So many tastes and flavours, none of them likely to give anybody indigestion.”

Irish Times journalist and RTE commentator Fintan O ‘Toole had this to say, “Witty and gritty, It Happens Between Stops is something rare in Irish fiction, a view of working life from the inside. It combines the freshness, vigour, humour and hard edge of everyday speech with the determination to transform the mundane with the power of imagination.”

‘It Happens Between Stops‘ is published by Original Writing. You can get further information on the Original Writings website or by emailing ciewriters@gmail.com

M7 Nenagh To Limerick Road To Open Next Tuesday

Construction Work near Annaholty Bog

The National Roads Authority (NRA) have indicated that the completion of the M7 Nenagh to Limerick road means that the stretch of motorway will finally open next Tuesday, September 28th, more than a year behind schedule.

The construction of this 38km road, stretching from Annacotty to Nenagh in Co Tipperary, was contracted to Bothar Hibernian almost four years ago and was due for completion in June 2009, however, the contractors ran into serious difficulties traversing Annaholty Bog, where the almost completed road collapsed last December.

Engineers have now constructed a massive reinforced concrete and steel bridge enforcement to provide a more stable base for this stretch of roadway.

The €425m road is the second last section of the Dublin to Limerick motorway to be completed and will link the Limerick Southern Ring Road with the existing Nenagh bypass.

The project includes 28km of motorway, and a 10km upgrade of the Nenagh bypass to motorway standard, bypassing the towns of Birdhill, Daly’s Cross and the Lisnagry railway level crossing.

A National Roads Authority spokesman says the ‘Design and Build’ nature of the contract would ensure that taxpayers were not liable for any additional structural costs incurred.

It is estimated that up to 20,000 vehicles a day will now use this new stretch, knocking only eight minutes from current journey times.

Armed Forces To Carry Out Manoeuvres In Tipperary

Irish Army Defence Forces personnel will be taking taking part in major military exercises in South Tipperary and the North Cork area over this coming week.

The public and motorists are being advised to be aware and expect to encounter the movement of large groups of armoured vehicles between Monday and Thursday, and especially on the Tuesday morning.

This movement will be in the areas Kilcoran, Ballyporeen, Araglin and Kilworth military ranges.

The main problem at the Kilcoran, Cahir military range is always military traffic waiting to turn across the main Cork to Dublin road unto the range, or when leaving, vehicles pulling out of the range in convoy.

Warning to motorists: This stretch of road is quite dangerous and the Military Authorities are anxious not to add unnecessarily to this danger.

Considerable military helicopter activity is also expected around Kilcoran and north of Araglin.

These exercises will also include the use of simulated explosive charges being detonated on the military ranges in these named areas.

Smarter Travel In Rural Areas Conference Tipp Institute

A “Smarter Travel In Rural Areas” Conference and training workshop will be held in the Tipperary Institute Thurles on 16th and 17th September 2010.

Tipperary Institute Thurles

This Conference and the Training Workshop have been organised by Tipperary Institute, Tipperary Energy Agency, North Tipperary Leader Partnership, Rural Transport Network and Mendes Limited.

All are part of the work programmes in the EU project, Pro.Motion, the Smarter Travel projects, Pro.Motion Plus and Eco-drive and the EU project, Clean Drive.

The event aims to pass on the experience gained in the above projects in order to assist communities and organisations in the planning and implementation of Smarter Travel in rural areas.

Amongst the speakers are:-Graham Lightfoot, (Mendes Limited), Síona Daly, (Tipperary Energy Agency), Cllr. Virginia O’Dowd, (Nenagh Rail Partnership), Damien Tobin (Rural Transport Network), Vincent Sheehan, (Manager Business Development, Bus Éireann).

Information on the various projects and activities will be on display on both days.

Recent Speeding Fines Issued May Not Be Valid

Particularly nowadays, we are all very familiar in this country with the phrase “Two Tier Society”, however for many months now, here in Co.Tipperary the picturesque village of Inch on highway R498, has been displaying a “Two Tier Speed Limit” and locals are boasting that they are the only village in the world which has this anomaly. Indeed they are hoping to gather much needed tourism revenue and expecting Shannon Development to assist them to promote this eighth wonder of the world.

How did this unusual phenomenal occur you might ask? Well to tell you the truth www.thurles.info for the first time ever admit we are totally gobsmacked.

Fairy at work in Inch Thurles.

Locals expound many theories as to how this came about and these include:-
(A) Signs were installed by a dyslexic NRA or North Tipperary Co. Council Council employee.
(B) Unhappy green fairies in the area are bitter because someone interfered with their rainbows. (Believe me there are fairies in Tipperary. They can best be seen after the pubs shut.)
(C) It is a special speed limit for local politicians and their Garda drivers, rushing to funerals and to the aid of the 7,712 Tipperary unemployed and the 36,438 households countrywide that are now in mortgage arrears.
(D) An effort by the Garda Traffic Corp to confuse drivers, so as to collect maximum money from speeding tickets, to assist in the bolstering of Anglo Irish Bank Guarantees.
(E) However the most common held theory elucidated, is that because of the imminent threat to Accident and Emergency services at Nenagh General Hospital, HSE officials and local politicians may need access to a quick getaway, the latter to survive taking part in the soon to be held next General Election.

All joking aside folks, while the National Roads Authority (NRA) reveal plans to develop a 2,000km cycle path network around the country at cost unknown and now also intend to spend €250,000 erecting signs across the motorway network, telling drivers there is nowhere to stop to eat, refuel or visit the toilet, motorist in Rural Tipperary are being fined for speeding where speed limit signs clearly do not exist or, at the very least, are confusing.

Top Local Solicitor and Thurles Councillor Mr Gerard O’Brien who runs his office from 2 Thomond Road in the town has described this scenario as “motorist entrapment, akin to shooting fish in a barrel.”

Whatever the reason for this anomaly, it would appear that after some months, no one is rushing to correct this confusion, which would include the replacement of missing speed signs traveling towards Thurles, and balancing the existing speed signs travelling towards the Nenagh direction. Our picture clearly shows the back and front of speed signs as you enter the village of Inch from the Thurles road and also as you leave the village, headed towards Thurles.

Locals inform us that a certain van regularly parks in the towns-land of Ballinahow, taking pictures of car number plates. In fact one was lurking there on the 2nd of September last at 7.00pm, we wonder if they photographed or even noticed this confusing signage. Certainly local police appeared to be unaware of it when I reported it today.
We have also notified North Tipperary Co. Council’s Health and Safety department so hopefully this confusion can be sorted out before the NRA run out of money or motorists end up in the local Courts, wasting a Judges valuable time.