Cork City Tourist Train Project

My name is Pat Flynn and I am the promoter of the Cork City Tourist Train Project. I assembled an investor group to progress the Project and also secured the support of Fáilte Ireland, the Tourism Section in Cork City Council (TEAM), the Cork City Local Enterprise Office (LEO), the Cork City Partnership (CCP), the Local Cork City Intreo Office, Micro Finance Ireland Bank (MFI), Ulster Bank, National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the Local Garda PSV Office.

Further to same I assembled a financial package with attached commitments that I took on board equating to €150,000.00 from various sources including European Structural Funds and thereafter set about employing businesses in the local Irish economy to build the Cork City Tourist Train. Those Engineering businesses and the like done a great job and the train was tested/Certified and made ready to go into service fort May 2016. I include a image of the steam themed tourist train and its route with this submission.

However the City Council would only provide a operational pick up set down position to work the train from, on a remote back street far removed from the central tourist catchment that the train was designed and proposed for. The position they provided was outside the door of the Social Welfare Office on George's Quay where no tourists or visitors exist and thus further to trialing there it was found to be non performing and thus not commercially viable for such a tourist train business.

We were told that the reason for positioning the train away from the tourist catchment on the Grand Parade was so that the City Council would not be upsetting the Open Top Bus Operator. We were not even providing the same service as the hop on hop off Open Top Bus Operator but rather a addition activity for visitors to avail of when visiting the city. We did not provide for hop on hop off capability but rather just a circular themed steam train experience on the floor of the city. We were further told that we should get the Open Top Bus Operator to cart passengers to the train at the remote position on George's Quay but such is not part of our service contract.

We further note following the release of the Draft City Development Plan 2022 -2028 that there is no mention of the Cork City Tourist Train Project. So thus it appears to us that THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN REDACTED. That does not provide for the building of a diverse economy as is mentioned as a key pillar in the Draft Document. A proper Draft would give proper consideration to the needs of a diverse economy and consideration is needed to remedy the oversight both in theory and in practice.