M2 Motorway Belfast

[screenexile]

funny you mention the extra traffic...the trains are jam packed. I haven't got a seat on the train in a long long time, sardines in a tin. These last 2 weeks i have seen 2 girls faint on the train in the morning on their way to work who had to stand and the heat on the trains is keeling them over. Translink have said they have seen a 6% increase in the last 6 months alone (I reckon it's more)...

So where is all this traffic coming from...M1 packed, M2 packed, Buses and bus lanes packed and trains on overload...WTF

The M2 is due to the new road and it's a f**king nightmare I've only had to do it once but I couldn't face that twice a day every day. . . not sure about the others!

[Tony Baloney]

Immigrants.

[seafoid]

The problem is not the roads. There was never an issue when the Motorways were opened.

The problem is that there are too many cars. Tomorrow, check how many cars have only one occupant? That wont include me as I will be giving my blow-up doll a lift into work.

https://youtu.be/n5h0qHwNrHk

[seafoid]

Is the roundabout at Toome named after Roddy Mccorley?  It should be.

[Rois]

Traffic at the end of M2 heading towards Toome has been a disaster lately in evenings
Anyone know of any short cuts in the area to cut out moneynick area?

Staffordstown Rd at Randalstown takes you into Toome.

[Eamonnca1]

The traffic on the M1 is a complete nightmare at the min too.
The bus lanes doent seem to help at all.

What i dont understand is, if they were going to put in  bus lane, why does it not run the whole way from the Sprucefeild park and ride?
it seems to be of limited use to the buses as well, by the time it starts, the traffic has cleared a bit anyway 

Are you saying that the traffic moves better where there's a bus lane than were there isn't one? Surely that'd mean the bus lane is helping.

[Eamonnca1]

Great video here about traffic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4PW66_g6XA

Touches on induced demand and how adding more capacity to roads doesn't help even though you'd expect it to. One thing I didn't know before watching that is traffic grows exponentially. You only have to add a small number of cars to add a lot of time to your journey.

[Wildweasel74]

Toome never been as bad as at present; shortcuts  - cut to randalstown staffordtown been tried! 1
30mins to get through randalstown alone in peak traffic:  cut up the ballymena line and into randalstown at least 20 mins; straight to ballymena then toome; again 25mins! There no way round toome: if u dont hit it before 4-30 you screwed! Any later i actually go home the M1 after 4-30 as heading moneymore direction

[under the bar]

Blame Peter Robinson/Arlene cnut-face Foster and her leeches for draining 1bn in legalised fraud while every other public service suffers.

[Owen Brannigan]

There is almost no traffic solution that can be implemented to resolve the problems in and out of Belfast because when the York Street interchange is built (thanks to DUP money), the A6 is dualled to Derry (thanks to DUP money) and the fast transit system is implemented (thanks to EU money) the amount of traffic will have increased to fill the new capacity.

The solution is for competent politicians to take the planning in Belfast in hand and away from Belfast City Council.  New office blocks, government agencies, etc should all be moved out of the city to virtually free land at the Maze where there is 350 acres of flat building land and to the West.  BCC wants all of this to fill its coffers with business rates and draws the population to work in Belfast from all over the country when it can't even transport the locals with any efficiency.  There is no reason why the Maze site could not have been used the plethora of new business that has congregated in the city centre and Titanic quarter.  Oh yes there is, DUP fell out with pals in SF who then blocked the building of a motorway exchange at the site until a H block memorial was built thereby failing to utilise the best development site outside Belfast.  With modern technology, new businesses coming into N.Ireland can be built anywhere, same for government agencies instead of sticking them in east Belfast and North Down and then expecting civil servant to drive through the city which had two top traffic jams in the UK despite having a population of only 600,000!

The UK's top 10 most congested roads, and the number of hours lost to them in 2016, were:
A406 Northbound - Chiswick Roundabout to Hanger Lane, London - 73 hours
A2 Eastbound - New Cross Gate to Prince Charles Road, London - 62 hours
A3211 Eastbound - Westminster Bridge to London Bridge, London - 57 hours
A102 Northbound - A2/Kidbrooke to Blackwall Tunnel, London - 51 hours
A4200 Southbound - Russell Square to Aldwych, London - 50 hours
A1 Southbound - College Gardens to Wallace Park, Belfast - 49 hours
A308 Eastbound - Putney Bridge Approach to Sloane Square, London - 46 hours
A431 Westbound - Bryants Hill to Lawrence Hill, Bristol - 45 hours
A24 Northbound - Ormeau Road to Ann Street, Belfast - 45 hours
A6 Northbound - Macclesfield Road to Heaton Lane, Manchester - 44 hours

Expect Toome-Moneynick-M2 to join this with the current road building.

Unfortunately we don't have near competent politicians who can see further than the next self engineered crisis or their own cultural noses and the next election.

[TheOptimist]

There is almost no traffic solution that can be implemented to resolve the problems in and out of Belfast because when the York Street interchange is built (thanks to DUP money), the A6 is dualled to Derry (thanks to DUP money) and the fast transit system is implemented (thanks to EU money) the amount of traffic will have increased to fill the new capacity.

The solution is for competent politicians to take the planning in Belfast in hand and away from Belfast City Council.  New office blocks, government agencies, etc should all be moved out of the city to virtually free land at the Maze where there is 350 acres of flat building land and to the West.  BCC wants all of this to fill its coffers with business rates and draws the population to work in Belfast from all over the country when it can't even transport the locals with any efficiency.  There is no reason why the Maze site could not have been used the plethora of new business that has congregated in the city centre and Titanic quarter.  Oh yes there is, DUP fell out with pals in SF who then blocked the building of a motorway exchange at the site until a H block memorial was built thereby failing to utilise the best development site outside Belfast.  With modern technology, new businesses coming into N.Ireland can be built anywhere, same for government agencies instead of sticking them in east Belfast and North Down and then expecting civil servant to drive through the city which had two top traffic jams in the UK despite having a population of only 600,000!

The UK's top 10 most congested roads, and the number of hours lost to them in 2016, were:
A406 Northbound - Chiswick Roundabout to Hanger Lane, London - 73 hours
A2 Eastbound - New Cross Gate to Prince Charles Road, London - 62 hours
A3211 Eastbound - Westminster Bridge to London Bridge, London - 57 hours
A102 Northbound - A2/Kidbrooke to Blackwall Tunnel, London - 51 hours
A4200 Southbound - Russell Square to Aldwych, London - 50 hours
A1 Southbound - College Gardens to Wallace Park, Belfast - 49 hours
A308 Eastbound - Putney Bridge Approach to Sloane Square, London - 46 hours
A431 Westbound - Bryants Hill to Lawrence Hill, Bristol - 45 hours
A24 Northbound - Ormeau Road to Ann Street, Belfast - 45 hours
A6 Northbound - Macclesfield Road to Heaton Lane, Manchester - 44 hours

Expect Toome-Moneynick-M2 to join this with the current road building.

Unfortunately we don't have near competent politicians who can see further than the next self engineered crisis or their own cultural noses and the next election.

Ive been sceptical regarding the effects of moving the Jordanstown Campus to the city centre. Doubt this will help these matters.

[seafoid]

Northern Ireland has a Protestant motorway system for a Protestant people. There isn't even a motorway to the biggest market on the island. FFS. In their heads many Unionists do not Iive in Ireland. And the money comes from somewhere magical. There is no need to trade with Taigs.

Before the war there were very few educated nationalists  west of the Bann working in Belfast.

The war put a lid on growth of  economic activity.

The economic crash in 2008 resulted in huge cuts to UK capital spending on things like roads.

The motorway system wasn't designed for now.

And Brexit will shunt money relentlessly to the rich. There won't be much new money for motorways.

The only point of NI is if there is a financial advantage to being British. Innit. What is the Ulster Scots for trína chéile? 

[ONeill]

Been travelling it for the past 5 years.
Back rounds around Toome are the only way to avoid the queue there.

As for the M2, avoid the car park that it is in the morning by heading For Antrim and then over the Mountain into Belfast.  Saves me easily 45 minutes every day.

Yiz can fcuk away off

[BennyCake]

Northern Ireland has a Protestant motorway system for a Protestant people. There isn't even a motorway to the biggest market on the island. FFS. In their heads many Unionists do not Iive in Ireland. And the money comes from somewhere magical. There is no need to trade with Taigs.

Before the war there were very few educated nationalists  west of the Bann working in Belfast.

The war put a lid on growth of  economic activity.

The economic crash in 2008 resulted in huge cuts to UK capital spending on things like roads.

The motorway system wasn't designed for now.

And Brexit will shunt money relentlessly to the rich. There won't be much new money for motorways.

The only point of NI is if there is a financial advantage to being British. Innit. What is the Ulster Scots for trína chéile?

And the same with the railways.

All this talk of equality, fair employment, infrastructure, jobs, 50/50 police force etc is all bollix. It's all a facade. The underlying agenda in the North is still anti-catholic, and always will be.

[armaghniac]

Quite apart from closing the railways in Tyrone, the Stormont government closed the likes of the line to Banbridge and the BCDR which would have been very helpful as commuter lines. And parts of the closed lines would have been good for commuting also, e.g from Armagh or Dungannon.

But a measure of dispersal of jobs is needed, if some of the people driving through Toome were going to Derry to work then it would spread things around more.