IRL: MSA progress and signage

[odlum]

csd posted these pictures of the M4 service area


[QUOTE=csd;67467266]Folks,

I had a chance to take some shots of the M4 MSAs today, both on and off the motorway. It appears that the M4 areas are a bit behind their M1 cousins.

1. The westbound MSA, taken from the M4 mainline.


2. Another one of the westbound MSA.


3. Eastbound MSA, taken from the M4 mainline westbound.


4. Eastbound MSA, taken from a nearby bridge over the M4.


5. Eastbound diverge and westbound merge (looking east).


6. Detail of the pump area, eastbound MSA.


7. Car park of the eastbound area.


8. A final overall site view of the eastbound MSA.


/csd[/QUOTE]



Also first MSA signage on the M1 taken by Bluetonic.

[QUOTE=Bluetonic;67503265]A northbound sign at Ballough.

https://i34.tinypic.com/k2i9ah.jpg

A southbound sign at Ballough.

https://i35.tinypic.com/2cdaloz.jpg[/QUOTE]

The first M1 MSA will open on the 6th September.

[roadtester]

Looks great - when do they open?

[bothar]

I note an electronic panel in the advance signs on the M1 for showing fuel prices.

[Chris5156]

Also first MSA signage on the M1 taken by Bluetonic.

A northbound sign at Ballough.

http://i34.tinypic.com/k2i9ah.jpg

Wow.

Sorry - but whoever is responsible for coming up with traffic sign designs in the Republic has absolutely no flair for design, do they? That's just horrible.

[CrackersA361]

Also first MSA signage on the M1 taken by Bluetonic.

A northbound sign at Ballough.

http://i34.tinypic.com/k2i9ah.jpg

Wow.

Sorry - but whoever is responsible for coming up with traffic sign designs in the Republic has absolutely no flair for design, do they? That's just horrible.

Looks quite similar to the ones they have in France, but at least these Irish ones convey a lot more information than their French cousins!

[Johnathan404]

I prefer the bottom portion of that sign to our one, but I think the choices of symbols are a little odd. Why do they need to specify that there are HGV facilities (and why not use the HGV symbol?) and food AND snacks, when they seem to think that it goes without saying that there are showers, tourist information, picnic tables and a shop. Also, why stress that fuel and HGV facilities will be open 24 hours?

Will any Irish services have a motel? If so, won't that upset the layout of the sign?

As for the top of the sign, that's a common Irish issue, but yes it is a little

After these three services open what will happen next? Are the M6, M9 and N11 services still on the cards?

[odlum]

I think one recently began construction on the M7 close to Limerick. I don't know what the status is with the rest.
As for the signage this will probrably make it worse.



More pics by csd

[QUOTE=csd;67736963]Folks,

As noted above, signage has been erected on the M4 westbound -- see pics below (including the electronic price signage).

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nqjnogKfNLs/THrcW ... G_5416.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_nqjnogKfNLs/THrcW ... G_5420.JPG

There's a tree planted right in front of this one:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nqjnogKfNLs/THrcW ... G_5424.JPG[/QUOTE]

[Cian]

There's one being knocked together in Borris in Ossory, but its unofficial and offline on an atrociously underpowered junction (enter and exit from below dual-LILOs)

[Chris_533976]

The M1 and M4 services that are currently under construction are the only two that have been signed.

All the other ones have been effectively cancelled and ****, except for one on the M11 near Gorey and one on the M20 near Rathduff, both of which will be built as part of their respective PPP road-building schemes IF THEY EVER HAPPEN.

All the others on the M6,7,8,9 have been postponed indefinately. However, lots of unofficial ones are springing up, though these are only signposted by banners hung from bridges or lorries parked in fields and are not all open 24 hours, and are several miles from junctions.

[IrlRon]

The M1 and M4 services that are currently under construction are the only two that have been signed.

All the other ones have been effectively cancelled and ****, except for one on the M11 near Gorey and one on the M20 near Rathduff, both of which will be built as part of their respective PPP road-building schemes IF THEY EVER HAPPEN.

All the others on the M6,7,8,9 have been postponed indefinately. However, lots of unofficial ones are springing up, though these are only signposted by banners hung from bridges or lorries parked in fields and are not all open 24 hours, and are several miles from junctions.

Ironically enough it is the M7 & M8 in particular that are in most dire need of MSAs. The M4 is by Irish standards now not that long and has several junctions with petrol stations right off it (J6 and J7 both have petrol stations practically just off the junction as does J10). The M1 isn't massively long either. However the M7 and M8 together constitute very substantial lenghts of motorway and yet have no MSAs. The nearest the M7 has to one is Midway, but there's no petrol there which is quite an important ommission.

[NFD100]

This appeared in national papers yesterday............

[dantheman]

Cross post from boards.ie, but some pictures of the new service station:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost ... tcount=259

[Trebeck]

Was wondering who the fuel provider was going to be from previous pictures, the green livery looked very BP, but from those pictures it is Top.

Why does Ireland (north and south) have these wacky independents now (Go, Top, Topaz, Emo etc.) instead of Esso, Shell, Total etc.?
What happened to Statoil in the south too?

[AndyB]

Topaz took over Statoil and Anglo Dutch Shell's operations in Ireland in 2005, and in Northern Ireland in 2008.

Shell, Esso and Texaco have all quit Northern Ireland in the last few years. Some Shell garages changed to BP, but most became Topaz - the majority of Esso garages also seemed to become BP, the remainder becoming Maxol. Texaco seem to have split evenly between Maxol and Nicholl Oils' new brand, Star. Jet disappeared a few years ago.

[nowster]

Something suggests that it would be Applegreen on the M1 (if they still exist).

[Cian]

Fuel at all Superstop MSAs (they having *al* of them so far) is Applegreen at the main pumps and TOP at the truck pumps. The two forecourt roofs are different shades of green.

The rise of the super-idependents down here comes from the tiny margins on fuel in Ireland scaring off most of the oil companies and Statoil having bought out a number of them - BP and Jet for instance - when they came in. Statoil and Shell mostly became Topaz, Maxol picked up excess stations from the Statoil/Jet merger to become as big as they did.

Petrogas (Applegreen/Discount Fuel Deals and lots of [placename] Service Station branded outlets too) bought up anyone's random spares and built new ones. I know of ex Shell, ex Statoil and even ex Texaco Applegreen stations now.

Lots of franchisers got annoyed with the big oil firms franchise fees and went to smaller groupings like Gulf or GreatGas; GreatGas then got bought by DCC who had also bought Burmah out and rebranded them as "Emo". We then have regional-specific independents/groups like Swift, Amber, Toughers and the other big Irish indie, TOP as mentioned above

...and THATS why we only have a scattering of stations from two of "big oil", Texaco and Esso.

[AndyB]

I particularly remember that every BP garage I knew of in Ireland became Statoil in the early 1990s. It was later before I found out that Statoil had bought out BP's interests in Ireland, rather than BP just using a non-British brandname!

[Trebeck]

Thanks for the info AndyB and Cian.

Interesting stuff. I remember 15 years or so ago, Statoil seemed to be everywhere in the South.

Remember too about 8 years ago Esso had some sort of fuel card promotion in the South, the advertising showed a computer generated driving simulation showing Irish landmarks such as Cashel castle etc.

In the North there are still some Texacos (as advertised by those annoying "tex message" adverts, and usually with a Centra shop eg. O'Neill Rd, Newtownabbey, Finaghy near Blacks Rd).

BP persists in the North, but of the others (in the last 5 years or so):
Esso -> Maxol (to complement existing Maxol stations)
Jet -> Emo (in the last year or so these have been rebranded)
Shell -> Topaz

Then the others:
Top / Kelly Fuels
"Go!"
Independents (eg. "Ballytown Service Station")

I always thought Burmah was bought out by Texaco, as the little old Burmah in whitehouse became a small Texaco.


Somewhat back on topic, good to see MSAs getting built.
I remember once on the M1 from Dublin a passenger needing a bathroom break, but no services are signed, so I had to turn off at a junction and get lost! (didn't bring sat nav)

Totally different to Britain where MSAs are everywhere and well signed. I stopped at one on the M6 between Birmingham and Manchester that had a landscaped duck pond, was more like a park than a service station / food court!

[bothar]

I particularly remember that every BP garage I knew of in Ireland became Statoil in the early 1990s. It was later before I found out that Statoil had bought out BP's interests in Ireland, rather than BP just using a non-British brandname!

I doubt whether most people thought much about the origins of the BP name, anymore than they thought about the connection between Esso and Standard Oil.

Totally different to Britain where MSAs are everywhere and well signed. I stopped at one on the M6 between Birmingham and Manchester that had a landscaped duck pond, was more like a park than a service station / food court!

MSAs might not be what you think of as a tourist (except for Sabristi, of course), but they can affect your perception of a place. I remember in Germany a MSA along an autobahn in Bavaria with a striking view over a valley. Hopefully the Irish ones will be clean and will not have outrageous prices.

[Trebeck]

I particularly remember that every BP garage I knew of in Ireland became Statoil in the early 1990s. It was later before I found out that Statoil had bought out BP's interests in Ireland, rather than BP just using a non-British brandname!

I doubt whether most people thought much about the origins of the BP name, anymore than they thought about the connection between Esso and Standard Oil.

Having had no interest in petrol stations of the South until well into the 90s, I had always assumed that the lack of BP was similar to the "Vauxhall/Opel" issue (and why it took BT until 2000 to get their foot in the door in the Southern telecoms network).

As a youngster, I did used to wonder why on US TV shows Esso stations had Exxon signs.

Totally different to Britain where MSAs are everywhere and well signed. I stopped at one on the M6 between Birmingham and Manchester that had a landscaped duck pond, was more like a park than a service station / food court!

MSAs might not be what you think of as a tourist (except for Sabristi, of course), but they can affect your perception of a place. I remember in Germany a MSA along an autobahn in Bavaria with a striking view over a valley. Hopefully the Irish ones will be clean and will not have outrageous prices.

Totally agree, MSAs are one of the stops travellers will make, if they are grimy and the facilities are covered in graffiti (more often than not of a sectarian nature in facilities in the North), then it will definitely leave a bad impression.
The old Harthill services footbridge and Wimpy in Scotland always seemed a bit decrepit and depressing (although customer service was always cheerful!).

Agree to that unfortunately they are alike airports in that, along with providing facilities and an impression on tourists, more often than not they are a rip off due to their monopoly on that particular stop. Especially when the food is cold and stale (hinting at a particular services near Carlisle....)