Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)

eastwest

Muckyboots wrote: »

Organising a counter rally the disused phone box. Wants them reinstated as well.

Well if they have them up in Dublin, why not?

westtip

Muckyboots wrote: »

They are Gathering for the Greenway in Tuam on Saturday. Looking at their event stats I'd say they'll be hitting the 600's again and probably more. Businesses offering free refreshments! Two out of the three constituency TD'S will be speaking. Any chance Fr Ted & Dougal might make the trip down from Claremorris to try and spoil the party?

I hear it was a great meeting well done to all involved and hear there is a new political slogan on the streets of Tuam

ABC...Anyone but Canney!

TCDStudent1

westtip wrote: »

I hear it was a great meeting well done to all involved and hear there is a new political slogan on the streets of Tuam

ABC...Anyone but Canney!

What makes a meeting a great meeting? I passed through Tuam around that time and thought it looked like a slack enough turn out.

eastwest

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

What makes a meeting a great meeting? I passed through Tuam around that time and thought it looked like a slack enough turn out.

Good crowd for teatime on a Saturday, you couldn't get up or down that side of the square.
Huge anger regarding Canney in particular, I notice they've taken the gloves off now. People are really sore about being shafted last Monday.

Muckyboots

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

What makes a meeting a great meeting? I passed through Tuam around that time and thought it looked like a slack enough turn out.

But you have so many opinions and so many questions, yet a Government Minister and an opposition front bench spokeperson speak in person on the matter and you "passed through". Doesn't quite add up, I'm afraid.

TCDStudent1

Muckyboots wrote: »

But you have so many opinions and so many questions, yet a Government Minister and an opposition front bench spokeperson speak in person on the matter and you "passed through". Doesn't quite add up, I'm afraid.

I'd have liked to stay and listened but unfortunately I had other things to do and I was with somebody who has zero interest in the issue - I wasn't going to force them to stay.

Maybe it was a big crowd for what was expected. It probably wasn't a great time in fairness. I just expected it to be bigger but I'm definitely not an informed person on this. I'm more of a curious onlooker and come onto this thread to try be more informed. I know very very little of greenways or railways. I know Tuam well though. And of the crowd I saw, there were a lot of local faces.

westtip

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

I know Tuam well though. And of the crowd I saw, there were a lot of local faces.

Not hundreds bussed in then! And SF/WOT didn't bus in any disruptors from Claremorris!.

MayoForSam

I was in Tuam for the meeting and there was a strong, if not overwhelming, turnout, not bad at all for teatime on a Saturday evening.

There were a few speakers and the meeting was over in 30 minutes or so. Ciarán Cannon and Anne Rabbitte were both there and were very vocal in their support of the local campaigners. No sign of Seán Canney, surprise surprise, he was probably being entertained up the N17 in Claremorris by his WRC cohorts. Mind you, he would be ill-advised to ignore the depth of feeling in the town about this issue. The motorway opening this week had both strengthened Tuam as a possible transport/commuter hub, weakening the case for the train service to be restored but also highlighting that businesses in the town need the extra footfall a greenway would bring to throw a lifeline to the struggling local economy. It's even more frustrating when other parts of the country have seen the light and are exploiting the massive potential of greenways. It beggars belief that another local councillor (and hotel owner that basically went bust after the boom) could have voted against the feasibility study last Monday.

Anyway, Tuam people have their gander up and momentum is increasing rapidly. This is one issue that won't be swept under the carpet by the men in suits.

eastwest

MayoForSam wrote: »

I was in Tuam for the meeting and there was a strong, if not overwhelming, turnout, not bad at all for teatime on a Saturday evening.

There were a few speakers and the meeting was over in 30 minutes or so. Ciarán Cannon and Anne Rabbitte were both there and were very vocal in their support of the local campaigners. No sign of Seán Canney, surprise surprise, he was probably being entertained up the N17 in Claremorris by his WRC cohorts. Mind you, he would be ill-advised to ignore the depth of feeling in the town about this issue. The motorway opening this week had both strengthened Tuam as a possible transport/commuter hub, weakening the case for the train service to be restored but also highlighting that businesses in the town need the extra footfall a greenway would bring to throw a lifeline to the struggling local economy. It's even more frustrating when other parts of the country have seen the light and are exploiting the massive potential of greenways. It beggars belief that another local councillor (and hotel owner that basically went bust after the boom) could have voted against the feasibility study last Monday.

Anyway, Tuam people have their gander up and momentum is increasing rapidly. This is one issue that won't be swept under the carpet by the men in suits.

I got a definite feeling that the people have been pushed too far, and they're stating to push back. Canney isn't stupid though, I'd say he'll drop his few cronies in Claremorris in favour of keeping his seat.
If he doesn't, he's toast.

MayoForSam

eastwest wrote: »

I got a definite feeling that the people have been pushed too far, and they're stating to push back. Canney isn't stupid though, I'd say hello drop his few cronies in Claremorris in favour of keeping his seat.
If he doesn't, he's toast.

Funny you should say that, but another onlooker there this evening was a certain Paddy McHugh, who people might remember was another independent TD elected for Tuam a few years back. Poor Paddy, he didn't do much for the town, good or bad, but he was promptly removed at the subsequent election. Seán Canney is on far shakier ground right now than Paddy McHugh ever was.

westtip

MayoForSam wrote: »

FSeán Canney is on far shakier ground right now .

If this ABC cry Anyone But Canney starts getting into popular talk locally then there is a political slogan in the town that is going to stick, it will hurt him as it will start sinking into voters minds, once this starts happening he is on the backfoot explaining himself, that is when a politician starts suffering. It will be interesting to see how the local paper reports on this, this week, how they pick up on the Claremorris influence on the council and the fact that the local TD wants to do more for Claremorris than he does for Tuam. If this gets reported in the local paper it will do Canney untold damage, but he is a tough campaigner, don't underestimate him and it is still a while until the election, certain politicians have a knack of riding a storm.

Muckyboots

westtip wrote: »

MayoForSam wrote: »

FSeán Canney is on far shakier ground right now .

If this ABC cry Anyone But Canney starts getting into popular talk locally then there is a political slogan in the town that is going to stick, it will hurt him as it will start sinking into voters minds, once this starts happening he is on the backfoot explaining himself, that is when a politician starts suffering. It will be interesting to see how the local paper reports on this, this week, how they pick up on the Claremorris influence on the council and the fact that the local TD wants to do more for Claremorris than he does for Tuam. If this gets reported in the local paper it will do Canney untold damage, but he is a tough campaigner, don't underestimate him and it is still a while until the election, certain politicians have a knack of riding a storm.

Listened to all the speakers on the Tuam Greenway Group FB page this morning in full. Would be very uncomfortable viewing for Sean Canney and he'd be over the moon to get a crowd like that at a political rally, but I also heard olive branches being offered by each of the speakers, all of which indicated that they would talk to him to seek progress. . You can safely bet your house that all three constituency "colleagues" will be talking to each other next week. It's how it goes. The real negotiations will go on in the Dail bar & lobby. Opportunity knocks.

Before writing him off, beware the old adage, "there's no such thing as bad publicity".

Canneys name being in the news constantly, albeit for all the wrong reasons, still gives him a massive advantage over any challenge.

Add to that his 50/50 ministerial position where he tooted his own horn many times about fixing flooding issues for Galway farmers

Combine the two and he looks very good for re-election.

To be honest, if you really want to know, you need to go place a bet in the local bookies. They won't be long telling you which way the wind is blowing for him

eastwest

Muckyboots wrote: »

Listened to all the speakers on the Tuam Greenway Group FB page this morning in full. Would be very uncomfortable viewing for Sean Canney and he'd be over the moon to get a crowd like that at a political rally, but I also heard olive branches being offered by each of the speakers, all of which indicated that they would talk to him to seek progress. . You can safely bet your house that all three constituency "colleagues" will be talking to each other next week. It's how it goes. The real negotiations will go on in the Dail bar & lobby. Opportunity knocks.

He won't accept any olive branches I reckon. The smart side of him might, but he seems to be almost entirely controlled by West on track in Claremorris.

Muckyboots

Deleted User wrote: »

Before writing him off, beware the old adage, "there's no such thing as bad publicity".

Canneys name being in the news constantly, albeit for all the wrong reasons, still gives him a massive advantage over any challenge.

Add to that his 50/50 ministerial position where he tooted his own horn many times about fixing flooding issues for Galway farmers

Combine the two and he looks very good for re-election.

To be honest, if you really want to know, you need to go place a bet in the local bookies. They won't be long telling you which way the wind is blowing for him

Canney can't get elected without getting a sizable share of the town vote. Overall he seems to have difficulty understanding the concept of density. Actually I think he understands it very well given his qualifications but rather misjudged the mood. He'll be there abouts at election time but would be kicking himself if 100 votes lost him the town. To put it into context that's just one extended town family.

eastwest

Muckyboots wrote: »

Canney can't get elected without getting a sizable share of the town vote. Overall he seems to have difficulty understanding the concept of density. Actually I think he understands it very well given his qualifications but rather misjudged the mood. He'll be there abouts at election time but would be kicking himself if 100 votes lost him the town. To put it into context that's just one extended town family.

He's unpopular in Tuam now, but wait until next year's election. If there isn't firm movement on the greenway by then he'll be crucified.
Remember that his opposition will be quick to point out that he had a golden opportunity to deliver the greenway or some other big project for Tuam when he effectively held the balance of power in talks for government formation. Anything he asked for, within reason, he would have been given. And what did he ask for, what was his 'red line' issue? A feckin piece of paper to keep a few trainspotters in Claremorris happy.
Talk about folding your best ever hand!

westtip

Muckyboots wrote: »

Listened to all the speakers on the Tuam Greenway Group FB page this morning in full. Would be very uncomfortable viewing for Sean Canney and he'd be over the moon to get a crowd like that at a political rally, but I also heard olive branches being offered by each of the speakers, all of which indicated that they would talk to him to seek progress. . You can safely bet your house that all three constituency "colleagues" will be talking to each other next week. It's how it goes. The real negotiations will go on in the Dail bar & lobby. Opportunity knocks.

I'd say Anyone But Canney rang in his other two "colleagues" ears as an opportunity to secure a few hundred votes from Tuam, neither of the other two have Tuam base, ABC has a solid base that is being challenged now in Tuam on this one issue, if he is to lose first preferences on this issue, they are there to be taken. The independents will be the key target seats at the next election, can't see Rabbitte or Cannon cosying up to ABC they will see this as an opportunity to rid the constituency of this nuisance. If I was in head office of either FF or FG I'd be saying which of the independent alliance TDs has a weakness we can target, they have found a weakness in Canney, If they focus on this the greenway issue could become very damaging for Canneys first preference vote and make him very transfer unfriendly and very vulnerable despite his claims to have fixed the floods. I think Canney has totally misread this one, the only thing that can save him now is a complete about turn or maybe.....rely on his own report to kill off the WRC and be able to say, I tried my best for the railway but all independent reports point to the fact it won't happen so for the time being we will accept the greenway, a weak about turn, but nevertheles one that could save him.

eastwest

westtip wrote: »

I'd say Anyone But Canney rang in his other two "colleagues" ears as an opportunity to secure a few hundred votes from Tuam, neither of the other two have Tuam base, ABC has a solid base that is being challenged now in Tuam on this one issue, if he is to lose first preferences on this issue, they are there to be taken. The independents will be the key target seats at the next election, can't see Rabbitte or Cannon cosying up to ABC they will see this as an opportunity to rid the constituency of this nuisance. If I was in head office of either FF or FG I'd be saying which of the independent alliance TDs has a weakness we can target, they have found a weakness in Canney, If they focus on this the greenway issue could become very damaging for Canneys first preference vote and make him very transfer unfriendly and very vulnerable despite his claims to have fixed the floods. I think Canney has totally misread this one, the only thing that can save him now is a complete about turn or maybe.....rely on his own report to kill off the WRC and be able to say, I tried my best for the railway but all independent reports point to the fact it won't happen so for the time being we will accept the greenway, a weak about turn, but nevertheles one that could save him.

Smartest move FG coukd make would be to have ciaran Cannon deliver the capital funding for the greenway, but the council would have to be on board.

Muckyboots

eastwest wrote: »

Smartest move FG coukd make would be to have ciaran Cannon deliver the capital funding for the greenway, but the council would have to be on board.

Ciaran Cannon has already promised the capital funding. Perhaps if he waves an actual cheque in front of the Council they might act differently. There would be a riot if they stonewalled it again.

Claude Wilton

Muckyboots wrote: »

Ciaran Cannon has already promised the capital funding. Perhaps if he waves an actual cheque in front of the Council they might act differently. There would be a riot if they stonewalled it again.

A Kaiser Chiefs or Girls Aloud one?

eastwest

Muckyboots wrote: »

eastwest wrote: »

Smartest move FG coukd make would be to have ciaran Cannon deliver the capital funding for the greenway, but the council would have to be on board.

Ciaran Cannon has already promised the capital funding. Perhaps if he waves an actual cheque in front of the Council they might act differently. There would be a riot if they stonewalled it again.

He'll have to promise it louder, as in having Shane Ross make an announcement that this wrc blather has gone on too long and that the government is stepping in to do what the councils are unable to do -- to build a greenway from Athenry to the Fermanagh border. 
But therein lies the problem. Ross is a member of the party that isn't a party, the IA, and Canney has him by the S&Cs, threatening to bring down the government if he says anything against his owners' little cabal in Claremorris. Ross would have to take him on but he is unwilling to do so over something down in the sticks, a place that is a mystery to him most of the time.
The tragedy is, Michael Fitzmaurice would step in if Canney ran away in a huff, so this whole thing could still be sorted at government level, if there was a will to do it.
That's the nut that Cannon has to crack, and he's probably the best hope to do it. If he does, he'll have a job for life in this area.

westtip

eastwest wrote: »

He'll have to promise it louder, as in having Shane Ross make an announcement that this wrc blather has gone on too long and that the government is stepping in to do what the councils are unable to do -- to build a greenway from Athenry to the Fermanagh border. 
But therein lies the problem. Ross is a member of the party that isn't a party, the IA, and Canney has him by the S&Cs, threatening to bring down the government if he says anything against his owners' little cabal in Claremorris. Ross would have to take him on but he is unwilling to do so over something down in the sticks, a place that is a mystery to him most of the time.
The tragedy is, Michael Fitzmaurice would step in if Canney ran away in a huff, so this whole thing could still be sorted at government level, if there was a will to do it.
That's the nut that Cannon has to crack, and he's probably the best hope to do it. If he does, he'll have a job for life in this area.

Ross will continue to avoid answering the question Where is Canney report. Canney will avoid getting anythin done until the election. when we may get rid of the Claremorris TD Canney but end up with an FF SF gvt. The whole thing is being derailed by galway cllrs doing more in favour of claremorris than Tuam and Athenry.

Pete_Cavan

Has there been any suggestion of a feeder bus from Tuam to Athelney or, better yet, a P&R where the motorway crosses the rail line?

This would be relatively cheap and would not require any additional trains as existing services would be used. Obviously there are restrictions on the level of service that could be provided to Tuam on the existing single track were the Tuam line to reopen so any service to Tuam would almost certainly be a shuttle anyway.

Muckyboots

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Has there been any suggestion of a feeder bus from Tuam to Athelney or, better yet, a P&R where the motorway crosses the rail line?

This would be relatively cheap and would not require any additional trains as existing services would be used. Obviously there are restrictions on the level of service that could be provided to Tuam on the existing single track were the Tuam line to reopen so any service to Tuam would almost certainly be a shuttle anyway.

New licences would have to be issued for Tuam-Athenry but the Galway service currently offered by Burkes fulfils the needs of Tuam people in a way that Rail or P&R could never match. Plans to extend the old N17 bus corridors will speed up the bus journey times even more. People in Tuam will never accept getting a train to Athenry to get to Galway city centre and then face another onward journey to out Parkmore, NUIG or Mervue. A Luas style service on the N17 alignment has been touted and makes perfect sense was it not for the existing bus corridors and bespoke service already provided.
Galway City needs a Black Ash, Cork, style park & ride from the south of the city. But that's their problem.

westtip

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Has there been any suggestion of a feeder bus from Tuam to Athelney or, better yet, a P&R where the motorway crosses the rail line?

This would be relatively cheap and would not require any additional trains as existing services would be used. Obviously there are restrictions on the level of service that could be provided to Tuam on the existing single track were the Tuam line to reopen so any service to Tuam would almost certainly be a shuttle anyway.

Not sure but I know I did suggest a long time ago on one of the roads threads that the interchange at Rathmorrisey would be an ideal spot for a bus interchange station, with North South buses and East West buses simply pulling off the motorway two minutes into a simple multi bay style bus station or even the kind with through bays to allow flow through as opposed to park in and reverse out to create better speed through the station with basic needs met, a small cafe, shelters, toilets etc and realtime information boards - oh and through ticketing!!! and could be used as an interchange for passengers going in all directions.

There could even be a Galway city-Rathmorrisey shuttle bus service, the town to to see urban buses in superb operation like this is Luton. With a lot of those smaller buses, not mini buses but not the big jobbies either urban buses could do the job.

Who knows one day it might happen, my guess is all the land near the junction has been snapped up by landbank hoarding developers.

westtip

westtip wrote: »

Not sure but I know I did suggest a long time ago on one of the roads threads that the interchange at Rathmorrisey would be an ideal spot for a bus interchange station, with North South buses and East West buses simply pulling off the motorway two minutes into a simple multi bay style bus station or even the kind with through bays, with basic needs met, a small cafe, shelters, toilets etc and realtime information boards - oh and through ticketing!!! and could be used as an interchange for passengers going in all directions.

Who knows one day it might happen, my guess is all the land near the junction has been snapped up by landbank hoarding developers.

Also a great centrally located place for park-n-ride.

westtip

Deleted User wrote: »

Also a great centrally located place for park-n-ride.

Indeed that could be integrated into it, also a great location for people dropping off students on way back to Dublin on a Sunday or collecting point on a Friday; it is all about applying the logic of supply chain logistics. But imagine if every Dublin Galway bus had to pull in there as part of their licence how useful it would be.

I think I also promoted the idea on some other thread a long time ago how using the landbank of Galway airport with a fast link road to the new motorway would be an ideal location to relocate the city centre University regional hospital, it would release a huge city centre landbank for commercial and student residential accommodation .

It would place the regional hospital in much better location for the region, whilst still in the confines of the city and the space on the old airport would allow for hospital staff accommodation, student and residential accommodation etc etc.

This is the kind of thing that will make the new road deliver a better quality of life and services, not sure the Western Rail corridor will do anything for the region apart from allow two extra freight trains a week to trundle through Tuam late at night.

Pete_Cavan

My question about a P&R where the motorway crosses the rail line was more as a sop to WOT and Galway CoCo, offering a realistic way of linking Tuam to rail. Spending €X00m on reinstating the line is not realistic, particularly when there are few paths available on the single track line it joins. It should be 'take it or leave it' and plough on with the greenway. I'm sure that if it was examined in Canney's report, it would be a far more favourable option than reinstatement.

A P&R provides a public transport link at little cost and utilises existing services. It would almost certainly attract more passengers (greater catchment) and would help rail services there by providing a passing point. It would do more for rail than reopening the line to Tuam and at less cost. If they are looking for another location for a MSA north of Ennis (seeing as the interchange one isn't happening and one is planned on M6 closer to Oranmore), I would build it and P&R on opposite sides of the motorway, accessed by the one junction.

L1011

A MSA on the roundabout was refused - a bus station would have the same issues

westtip

L1011 wrote: »

A MSA on the roundabout was refused - a bus station would have the same issues

Sorry but MSA is?