A Tipperary Town based County Councillor is predicting traffic chaos in the town when colleges resume later this year.
Sinn Féin’s Tony Black says the decision by third level institutes in Limerick to incorporate “blended learning” into their timetables will be a major headache.
While accepting the need for such a move in a bid to halt the spread of Covid-19 he says many students will opt to commute rather than take accommodation in Limerick.
“It wouldn’t make much sense to be staying in there and paying for accommodation when you’re only in one week every month.”
“We see the level of the traffic on the Main Street every day with traffic passing through heading to Limerick or Waterford or Cashel or wherever the case may be. Even if it’s just an extra fifty cars or whatever in the mornings or in the evenings it’s just going to add to the problems that already exist.”
Tony Black says the current rail timetable also rules out that as a commuting option.
“If you’re coming from Carrick on Suir or Clonmel and you want to get to Limerick – at the minute there’s no trains running on that line.”
“If you want to get to Waterford for college and you’re coming from Tipperary Town go out to Limerick Junction and get a train and the earliest you can get into Waterford is if 9.30 or 10 o’clock in the morning.”
“I commuted for two years to Cork when I went to college and I couldn’t get to any of my 9 o’clock lectures because the earliest you could get into Cork was about 9.30 in the morning.”
“The system is not set up, it’s not user friendly. It doesn’t seem to be designed to allow people to get to work or to college in the cities that surround Tipperary.”
