West on track take kenny to task over rail corridor comments
THE West on Track community campaign has challenged Taoiseach Enda Kenny over comments he made on local radio about the performance of the Western Rail Corridor and the journey times on the Ennis to Athenry route.
Speaking on Midwest Radio, the Castlebar-based TD ruled out reopening the corridor from Sligo to Galway ‘in the lifetime of this government or the next’.
A statement issued by West on Track said it was regrettable that ‘the Taoiseach was so poorly briefed before making his recent comments’.
It continued: “He also appeared to be unaware that Mayo is now the largest producer of rail freight in Ireland, all of which is profitable.
'For the record, the facts are that numbers on the Galway-Limerick route are up two-thirds on last year since online booking and competitive fares were introduced in December 2013 and that train lengths have had to be doubled on weekend services. The current average journey time from Galway to Limerick is one hour, 50 to 55 minutes, not three hours.
“As for the potential development of the railway, it should be noted that preliminary work has commenced on reopening the southern end of the original Western Rail Corridor from Limerick to Foynes as a dedicated freight route. The Claremorris-Athenry link could and should be similarly developed. The full Ballina-Foynes route carried freight until 1998.
“In its written submission to the current draft Galway county development plan, Iarnród Éireann has indicated its desire to continue with the development of the Western Rail Corridor as one of two important rail projects in the west subject to funding and appropriate business case.”
The statement said it was also regrettable that there has been a sustained campaign against the development of the Western Rail Corridor ‘by the people behind the so-called Sligo-Mayo greenway campaign’.
It eleborated: “They are in fact an anti-rail campaign. Galway and Mayo county councils have steadfastly rejected any such notion in line with the regional planning guidelines and we are confident that this will continue to be the case.
“There are currently 38 greenway proposals under consideration by government. A shortlist of 10 was recently published. The list does not contain any proposal to establish a greenway on the Western Rail Corridor.
'This was clearly illustrated recently when Sligo and Leitrim county councils jointly sought to develop a plan for a greenway along the route of the former rail line through Leitrim to Enniskillen but feasibility funding was refused by the Department of the Environment. This despite the fact that there was all-party agreement on the idea unlike in the case of the Western Rail Corridor. So while Sligo County Council, including some pro-rail members, recently acceded to a request that an enquiry be made as to whether there might be funding available for a feasibility study, there is no guarantee that such a study will ever go ahead or, if it did, what it might conclude.
“The recent study of outdoor recreation in the west by the BMW regional authority came out strongly against the notion of putting a greenway on or beside the railway. The fact remains therefore that this proposal has no real support and that there are many more suitable places where greenways can be developed without destroying a key piece of regional infrastructure.”