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England’s coast-to-coast cycle route opened 20 years ago; Scotland’s equivalent opens this year. Now Ireland is getting in on the act with a 180-mile route from Dublin to Galway.
The Irish Coast-to-Coast will be a ‘greenway’ – that is, predominantly traffic-free. The latest section, from Ashtown to Castleknock in north-west Dublin, opened this week. Consisting of an improved towpath along the Royal Canal, the path cost €2m for 1.5 miles of route and is the third section to be opened.
Leo Varadkar, Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, explained that the route would be built stage-by-stage.
“Instead of trying to build the entire route in one go, at a time when resources are very limited, I have taken an incremental approach by developing each section as funding becomes available. Although we still have a huge task in finishing the rest of the project, I’m really looking forward to walking, cycling or running along the entire route between Dublin and Galway when it’s finally completed.”
Most of the eastern section follows the towpath of the Royal Canal; then, from Mullingar, the route will follow a disused railway for 25 miles to Athlone. This railway section is set to open next year. Then, from Athlone, the route will run through Shannonbridge, Loughrea, Craughwell, Clarinbridge and Oranmore to the Galway coast.
Unlike Britain, Ireland has no official national cycle network. Several local authorities have created their own circular leisure routes, and Sustrans’ UK National Cycle Network crosses the border in numerous places. Just as the English C2C formed the start of Britain’s NCN, the Irish Government sees this new route as the foundation for Ireland’s own cycle network.
Construction is underway on a new scenic cycleway along the North Wales coast – passing the northernmost point of the country.
The new route, from Talacre to Ffynonngroyw, brings the ambition of a coastal cycleway one step closer. At present, National Cycle Network route 5 diverts inland on hilly country roads, leaving the coast for 11 miles. The new path will complete the first six miles of a replacement coastal route.
The £750,000 project runs through an environmentally sensitive area – restricting the time of year at which work can be carried out – and skirts around the site of Point of Ayr Colliery. The colliery closed in 1996, the last deep mine in North Wales. Point of Ayr, the northernmost point on the Welsh mainland, is an RSPB reserve and renowned for its wading birds.
When it opens in August, the cycle route promises scenic coastal views and a safe alternative to the busy A548.
London’s reviled ‘Cyclists stay back’ stickers, which many campaigners accuse of “victim-blaming”, are to be removed from the capital’s buses.
After a meeting with London cycling activists, Transport for London has conceded that the sticker wording is inappropriate, and that the stickers are being wrongly applied to small vans and even cars. It has now promised to remove the stickers from all London buses until a new form of words can be agreed.
TfL will also ask freight operators to remove stickers from small vehicles entirely, and to remove them from large vehicles until the new wording is settled. Once the new stickers have been designed, they will be accompanied by guidance about when to use them – and when not.
In a powerful piece for the Guardian, Peter Walker explained the problems with the stickers:
“The ‘cyclists stay back’ message is, at best, over-simplistic and misleading, at worst outright dangerous victim-blaming. The choice of words implicitly places the responsibility for safety on the cyclist, not the driver.”
National cycling charity CTC described the discussions with TfL as “positive”, and added “expect to see much better stickers by the end of summer”.
Cycle tourists heading to the US have long bemoaned the lack of bike accommodation on Amtrak trains. Now the national train company is starting to put that right.
New ‘baggage cars’ are being introduced on many of Amtrak’s long-distance routes. Field testing has begun in which the carriages will be tried on the lines to Chicago, New Orleans, Miami and along the Northeast Corridor, to check their speed, stability, braking and baggage handling.
The aim is to introduce the new carriages by the end of the year, with new diner and sleeper cars to follow by 2016.
Each baggage car will have built-in ‘hanging racks’ for bikes. At present, most Amtrak lines will only take bikes which have been partly disassembled and packed in a box. The new fold-down racks are capable of taking either luggage or bikes, raising the possibility that up to 50 bikes could be transported at once in these spacious carriages. Unusually, the bike space will be air-conditioned!
Amtrak President Joe Boardman said “It’s clear that Americans want a national system of intercity passenger rail and Amtrak is moving ahead to build new equipment to meet customer demand.”
Similar guards’ vans have not been included in new-built British trains since the 1970s. However, the forthcoming Super Express Train for UK lines promises to have ten bike spaces per nine-car train – a modest improvement over the current six.
The ‘Chocolate Path’, the cycle path that runs besides the tidal River Avon on the south side of Spike Island, has been closed due to subsidence.
Bristol City Council says that “significant ground movements” have made the popular path too unsafe for public use. Fences have been erected at either end of the route to block access. Sustrans’ local manager Jon Usher called it a “significant failure of the path”, and went on to explain “the surface rose by about 300mm over a 2m length between 3pm and 5pm yesterday leaving a void beneath”. The path forms part of NCN 33, the Festival Way.
Engineers are now on site looking at the problem.
Made in the Cotswolds. Published by Éditions Système D Ltd.
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