Strategy

A Step Forward in Transport Planning: Ireland's Rail Prioritisation (With Caveats)

In 2024, Ireland published a Strategic Rail Review to inform government policy on rail development up to 2050. However, this left a significant question unanswered - how to prioritise rail projects. To answer this question, a new rail project prioritisation strategy has been developed.

Key Takeaways

• The Rail Review presented 32 recommendations up to 2050 to enhance and expand the rail system.
• This Rail Project Prioritisation Strategy sets out, at a high level, the proposed sequencing of selected projects.
• Major projects are shortlisted from the list of infrastructure interventions.
• The shortlisting process to determine the strategy assessed:
  • The outcomes associated with each potential project.
  • How the project meets the strategic objectives of the Rail Review.
  • How the project aligns with the development of a sustainable investment pipeline.
• Early interventions are projects identified for completion by 2030, subject to the appropriate approvals. These interventions allow for greater network resilience and incremental service uplifts to support growing passenger demand.
• Outcomes of the strategy include:
  • Potential Journey Time Savings: More than 30 minutes in many important corridors.
  • Rail Decarbonisation: 55% reduction in CO2 emissions across intercity and regional services.
  • Regional and rural connectivity: Enhancing frequency of rail services on regional corridors.
  • 250 km of additional rail connectivity: Opening opportunities for economic development and freight.
  • Addressing bottlenecks that add capacity for growth: Enabling faster, more reliable and more regular services.
  • A stronger backbone of the public transport system: Making it a more attractive way for people and goods to travel.
  • A sustainable pipeline of investment: Create a vibrant local rail industry, and foster value for money in a mature market.

Comment

Generally, we do not see sufficient focus in the transport sector on properly prioritising projects; therefore, it is refreshing to see a strategy that focuses on this. However, ideally, a transport prioritisation strategy would be multimodal. How do the rail review projects stack up against alternative investments in buses, cycling networks or light rail?

What Next?

Do you have a robust strategy for prioritising your transport investments?

Cable Cars

Beyond the Novelty: When Cable Cars Solve Real Urban Transport Problems

Last week, Paris opened its first cable car connecting the communities of Créteil and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, cutting the trip to about 18 minutes from roughly 40 minutes by bus. This article makes the case for cable cars to be considered a serious form of urban transport.

Key Takeaways

• In much of the transport profession, cable cars are treated as novelty infrastructure: ski lifts in disguise, or tourist attractions with questionable utility.
• In urban public transport, they can be a highly effective constraint-solving technology.
• Cities around the world are using them to address problems that conventional modes struggle with:
  • Mexico City is expanding its Cablebús network to connect very dense peripheral communities that are difficult to serve effectively with bus or rail.
  • Brest and Toulouse have built ropeways to cross rivers and rail corridors where bridges or tunnels would have been costly and disruptive.
  • Portland’s aerial tram connects a major medical campus that was isolated atop a steep hill.
• Câble C1 was chosen because it solved a problem: how to connect two dense suburban communities, close on a map but separated by a highway and a rail yard.
• Cable cars deserve consideration when:
  • The travel constraint is spatial, not demand-based.
  • Directness matters more than coverage.
  • Speed of delivery is a policy objective.
  • Reliability is valued over flexibility.
• Successful urban cable cars do three things:
  • They connect real everyday destinations.
  • Provide seamless transfers to other transport modes.
  • Use the same fare system as the wider network.
• The hesitation around cable cars is rarely about performance. It reflects their relative unfamiliarity within standard planning and appraisal frameworks.

Comment

There are scenarios where cable cars are the best transport solution. If they are appropriate somewhere like Paris, I suspect they should be used more frequently than they currently are. Indeed, Queenstown, New Zealand, is also progressing projects.

What Next?

Do you have transport problems where a cable car should be considered?

Policy

California's Road to Nowhere: Breaking the Highway Expansion Habit

The Brookings Institution has been issuing a series of papers called "California’s Road to Climate Progress", which aims to answer a central question: Even with multiple laws and focused rulemaking, why has California struggled to reduce driving distances and increase infill development? Part 5 has just been released.

Key Takeaways

• Despite climate commitments and understanding of induced demand, California continues to build new and wider roads.
• Recommendation 1: Caltrans (the state department of transportation) should stop funding all roadway widenings on state-owned and locally owned roads.
  • If a key goal of roadbuilding is to facilitate economic activity, what’s already built can deliver on that goal.
  • Even if the state stops adding any new lane miles today, maintenance and repair costs will continue to rise, especially as weather conditions grow more extreme.
  • No longer invest in projects that increase lane mileage on state-owned assets, with a narrow exception for priced freight-only lanes.
• Recommendation 2: Create a new Infill Access Fund to underwrite flexible infrastructure projects.
  • The most durable way to reduce Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT), transportation-related emissions, and exposure to extreme weather is to accelerate development in infill locations.
  • Infill developers have different infrastructure needs, including improved utilities, redesigned roadways, and nearby public space.
  • Make infill development more attractive by using existing transportation programs and revenues.
• Recommendation 3: Strengthen transportation funding and planning practices to deliver more sustainable, resilient, and infill-related projects.
  • Project evaluations meant to ensure the state delivers VMT-reducing, sustainable projects are often intentionally riddled with loopholes.
  • Legislators and Caltrans must prioritise alignment with climate principles over alignment with funding programs.
  • Publish project evaluations to be held accountable.
• Recommendation 4: Simplify climate planning requirements and performance measurement to reduce compliance burdens on regions and municipalities.
  • The state should begin to unwind many of the compliance-driven processes adopted in recent decades that delivered limited results.
• Recommendation 5: Leverage the “build, baby, build” energy of transportation professionals to deliver projects that support California’s climate goals.
  • Caltrans was created to build roads. Research now suggests that the culture and skills of Caltrans staff are misaligned with the contemporary goals of state leaders and the department itself.
  • Reorient Caltrans toward solutions that prioritise emissions reductions and resilience.

Comment

The core recommendations for California will apply to many jurisdictions around the world seeking to reduce emissions: shift from building new and bigger roads to alternative infrastructure and change the culture of transport departments to support this.

Building new and wider roads is still popular in California, and it remains to be seen whether politicians will be willing to go cold turkey on road projects.

What Next?

Do any of these recommendations apply to your jurisdiction?

Quick Adventures in Transport Wonderland

Here is what else I came across this week:

• ​Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did it get so bad?​
• ​Why Autonomous Vehicles Will Fail​
• ​What Canada can learn from Spain about high-speed rail​

Blog

Transport in 2026: My Predictions

This week, in my blog, I discussed my (not very optimistic) predictions for 2026. I promise that my first blog of the new year will be a lot more upbeat.

Podcast

Carpooling and High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes

This week on the Transport Leaders podcast, we discussed whether carpooling, combined with high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, could help deliver improved bus priority.

You can watch it here or listen here.