Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)

Grandeeod

Wagon360 wrote: »

The real issue isn’t end of the road, or me or indeed what situation we have now. The real decision that we have to take is what response should we have to the next 30 years.

Business as Usual, or change?

Any time you are ready to actually debate and set out your vision for the future I’ll be ready.

This post is really funny and was in response to me. I have no idea what you are on about by specifically stating that the real issue isn't about you or the poster known as end of the road.

You got my opinion on the WRC. That's what the thread is about.

Hugh Jampton

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

No, you put up cartoon versions of some arguments.

Lol, they could be crayon drawings and would still be valid points regarding this piece of line

Wagon360

Grandeeod wrote: »

Repeat yourself all you want. I answered your question in relation to the WRC over the next 30 years. That's what I come here to talk about. You can add another 90 years to that if you want because the result will be the same.

Now as for you dragging in population expansion and its relevance to a poorly built piece of 19th century infrastructure, well I just see that as yet another silly attempt to justify it's existence based on talking points that are very very loosely connected to the WRC.

By the way you did edit posts.

You’re still not answering my question.

Wagon360

Grandeeod wrote: »

This post is really funny and was in response to me. I have no idea what you are on about by specifically stating that the real issue isn't about you or the poster known as end of the road.

You got my opinion on the WRC. That's what the thread is about.

Read my posts and you might figure it out.

Grandeeod

Wagon360 wrote: »

You’re still not answering my question.

This is your question - what is your vision for the next 30 years? How do we manage population expansion?

Business as usual;

Or Change? If change, what change?

I'll answer your question if you explain what it has to do with the WRC alignment.

Wagon360

Grandeeod wrote: »

This is your question - what is your vision for the next 30 years? How do we manage population expansion?

Business as usual;

Or Change? If change, what change?

I'll answer your question if you explain what it has to do with the WRC alignment.

Everything, in my opinion.

It would be worth having a read at the following links which reflect my views in detail.

https://irishrailwaydevelopments.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/the-atlantic-economic-corridor-is-more-than-just-a-motorway/

http://www.mayonews.ie/news/28772-report-optimistic-for-future-development-of-western-rail-corridor

eastwest

Wagon360 wrote: »

Everything, in my opinion.

It would be worth having a read at the following links which reflect my views in detail.

https://irishrailwaydevelopments.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/the-atlantic-economic-corridor-is-more-than-just-a-motorway/

http://www.mayonews.ie/news/28772-report-optimistic-for-future-development-of-western-rail-corridor

The widely discredited cicero report and some anonymous blog? Hardly credible sources, in fairness.
If you really want a view on the future of the wrc, have a look at the report that is sitting on Shane Ross' desk since September.

Wagon360

Wagon360 wrote: »

Everything, in my opinion.

It would be worth having a read at the following links which reflect my views in detail.

https://irishrailwaydevelopments.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/the-atlantic-economic-corridor-is-more-than-just-a-motorway/

http://www.mayonews.ie/news/28772-report-optimistic-for-future-development-of-western-rail-corridor

All other things aside, that's one sloppy ass map that has little relation to anything

Wagon360

eastwest wrote: »

The widely discredited cicero report and some anonymous blog? Hardly credible sources, in fairness.

My Irony meter has just broken...

If you really want a view on the future of the wrc, have a look at the report that is sitting on Shane Ross' desk since September.

Meanwhile I hear that the report on Ross's desk is a lot more favourable towards rail than some here may hope it would be. Don't expect to see anything published until the draft NPF is finalised following the consultation exercise. It would seem the arguments on climate change made by consultees have hit home.

I'll just leave this here for Hugh

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/ireland/the-story-behind-ireland-s-greenway-success-1.3352239?mode=amp

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Corrib the 75km Greenway is underway

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1937474826269213&id=169444303072283

All its going to take to see the WRC converted to a Greenway is to wait for this Connemara one to be finished.

The local councillors on the East of the Corrib will be screaming for the line to be ripped up.

The IFA, who are always harping on about the poor rural communities, will suddenly become a whole lot more supportive of the Galway to Dublin Greenway when the rural jobs opportunities materialise

2021, I'll be cycling up that WRC line with 250,000 others (if the Irish Times article in my previous post is anything to go by)

Lastly, attached is a summary info graphic summarising the results of a baseline survey carried out on Waterford Greenway users

The numbers make it difficult to argue against a Greenway

Wagon360

Deleted User wrote: »

Lastly, attached is a summary info graphic summarising the results of a baseline survey carried out on Waterford Greenway users

The numbers make it difficult to argue against a Greenway

You're comparing apples with oranges here. The Dungarvan Greenway works on many levels, not least because it is connected to Waterford City, the Suir Valley Railway and the fact that Dungarvan is a popular destination in its own right. Similar with the Connemara Greenway. Again linking Clifden to Galway makes sense from a tourism perspective.

What also marks out the Dungarvan and Connemara campaigns is that they were conducted without aggressive rhetoric or lols etc from the promoters of those greenways. The power of a spoonful of honey versus the proverbial barrelful of vinegar to coin a phrase.

In many respects the obvious energy of the anti-rail campaigners would be better spent on establishing the Wild Atlantic Way greenway to run alongside the fantastic road route. Ireland at its best.

Wagon360

Wagon360 wrote: »

You're comparing apples with oranges here. The Dungarvan Greenway works on many levels, not least because it is connected to Waterford City, the Suir Valley Railway and the fact that Dungarvan is a popular destination in its own right. Similar with the Connemara Greenway. Again linking Clifden to Galway makes sense from a tourism perspective.

Please read the Irish Times article I linked above to see how wide of the mark your assessment is

What also marks out the Dungarvan and Connemara campaigns is that they were conducted without aggressive rhetoric or lols etc from the promoters of those greenways. The power of a spoonful of honey versus the proverbial barrelful of vinegar to coin a phrase.

In many respects the obvious energy of the anti-rail campaigners would be better spent on establishing the Wild Atlantic Way greenway to run alongside the fantastic road route. Ireland at its best.

As opposed to the WOT and rail lobby who simply stated that a Greenway was "not up for discussion" and refused to engage despite overwhelming local support for a Greenway.

There is no anti-rail group. An opposite view does not mean an anti anything. It's just a different opinion to yours. Hell I used the train from Galway to Dublin twice over the Christmas period myself.

eastwest

Wagon360 wrote: »

What also marks out the Dungarvan and Connemara campaigns is that they were conducted without aggressive rhetoric or lols etc from the promoters of those greenways. The power of a spoonful of honey versus the proverbial barrelful of vinegar to coin a phrase.
.

My apologies for always correcting you, but that is simply not true. There was a vociferous anti-greenway lobby in Waterford, mostly councillors who were whipped up by a few landowners who wanted to milk the project for every penny, and including a few people who thought that if they said 'no' often enough, somebody would build a railway on the route.
Right up to the opening of the greenway, I understand that nine councillors still opposed the greenway. The success of the project has silenced them now, and indeed their opposition didn't stop them taking their seats at the opening and making sure they got their pictures in the paper.
The 'honey versus vinegar' comment so beloved of WOT is a poor argument against a greenway or indeed in favour of a railway. If somebody opposes investment in tourism infrastructure because their nose is out of joint, then they've already lost the argument.

Muckyboots

Wagon360 wrote: »

A chart showing the people in towns and villages in the West what a tiny group of self-declared railway fanatics think is best for them.

eastwest

Muckyboots wrote: »

A chart showing the people in towns and villages in the West what a tiny group of self-declared railway fanatics think is best for them.

And with a very backward view of what constitutes industry and enterprise.

monument

Muckyboots wrote: »

A chart showing the people in towns and villages in the West what a tiny group of self-declared railway fanatics think is best for them.

Enough of the fanatics talk.

-- moderator

Muckyboots

Bus operators, rail promoters, Greenway advocates and cross-border government agencies all working together to maximise the benefit of rail infrastructure as an intermodal hub. There's something to think about.

"Ambitious plans are afoot to redevelop the former station as a brand new North-West Multi-Modal Transport Hub, with the stated ambition of transforming travel in the region and helping regenerate the local area....Translink is working together with the Department for Infrastructure, the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Derry City and Strabane District Council, Donegal County Council and Sustrans to deliver the project."

https://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/transport/rail-progress-for-the-north-west-1-8348641

westtip

Hello folks, well today at 5.00 pm the submissions to the North West Regional Assembly on the new Regional Spatial Economic Strategies close, I have no doubt there will be submissions telling the NWRA that there must be no surrender of the closed railway line to be used for anything but a railway - in other words lets leave it rotting for another 40 years as no railway is going to be re-opened.
Hopefully the NWRA will embrace the ideas from those that have made submissions asking for new Regional Spatial Economic Strategies to embrace some new thinking. I have never minded sharing my ideas and thoughts with others, so with just 4 hours and ten minutes until submissions close I am more than happy to share the attached .pdf which was made as a submission on behalf of the Western Rail Trail campaign, the submission includes plenty of reference to the contribution of the route to the Atlantic Economic Corridor. Feel free to abuse or applaud I really don't care.

eastwest

westtip wrote: »

Hello folks, well today at 5.00 pm the submissions to the North West Regional Assembly on the new Regional Spatial Economic Strategies close, I have no doubt there will be submissions telling the NWRA that there must be no surrender of the closed railway line to be used for anything but a railway - in other words lets leave it rotting for another 40 years as no railway is going to be re-opened.
Hopefully the NWRA will embrace the ideas from those that have made submissions asking for new Regional Spatial Economic Strategies to embrace some new thinking. I have never minded sharing my ideas and thoughts with others, so with just 4 hours and ten minutes until submissions close I am more than happy to share the attached .pdf which was made as a submission on behalf of the Western Rail Trail campaign, the submission includes plenty of reference to the contribution of the route to the Atlantic Economic Corridor. Feel free to abuse or applaud I really don't care.

Impressive, logical, forward-looking, pragmatic.
Ah no, that's not what they're looking for. Have you nothing that would get them all reelected?

eastwest

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

Northern Ireland at least has a clue regarding integrated transport, and sweating rail assets to the maximum advantage. If the Derry - Coleraine - Belfast railway was in the Republic, it would have been either closed in the seventies or cut back to the bare minimum that Official Ireland could pretend there was a service on it for parliamentary reasons.

Like Dublin-Athlone-Galway?

JCX BXC

Ennis-Limerick line closing from Tomorrow onwards until further notice due to flooding yet again.

Clearly passenger numbers won't grow on the other half of the route if you can't travel the first half!

eastwest

JCX BXC wrote: »

Ennis-Limerick line closing from Tomorrow onwards until further notice due to flooding yet again.

Clearly passenger numbers won't grow on the other half of the route if you can't travel the first half!

That's terrible! Tens of people discomoded.
Or as a certain 'consultancy' company might say, 'millions stranded by biblical floods'.

eastwest

eastwest wrote: »

Like Dublin-Athlone-Galway?

Ceannt Station is proposed for redevelopment.

westtip

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

Send them a response hectoring them? Yeah, that will work

I see you read it then....not.

Isambard

Hugh Jampton wrote: »

Northern Ireland at least has a clue regarding integrated transport, and sweating rail assets to the maximum advantage. If the Derry - Coleraine - Belfast railway was in the Republic, it would have been either closed in the seventies or cut back to the bare minimum that Official Ireland could pretend there was a service on it for parliamentary reasons.

Derry Coleraine Belfast was extremely lucky to survive in the seventies given the anti rail UTA that shut nearly everything else. CIE were enlightened back then by comparison.

eastwest

Isambard wrote: »

Derry Coleraine Belfast was extremely lucky to survive in the seventies given the anti rail UTA that shut nearly everything else. CIE were enlightened back then by comparison.

You can't compare derry to Claremorris though, in terms of population or economic activity.

eastwest

Isambard wrote: »

Derry Coleraine Belfast was extremely lucky to survive in the seventies given the anti rail UTA that shut nearly everything else. CIE were enlightened back then by comparison.

You can't compare derry to Claremorris though, in terms of population or economic activity.

westtip

Wagon360 wrote: »

Everything, in my opinion.

It would be worth having a read at the following links which reflect my views in detail.

https://irishrailwaydevelopments.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/the-atlantic-economic-corridor-is-more-than-just-a-motorway/

http://www.mayonews.ie/news/28772-report-optimistic-for-future-development-of-western-rail-corridor

What Atlantic Economic Corridor? This concept simply does not stand up to scrutiny, it is a mythical creation, it does not exist in the minds of business, consumers, economists, anyone. It simply does not exist save in the minds of those taking to the airways to talk it up as some form of meaningful idea. It lacks substance, and certainly re-opening a c19th alignment railway that joins the mythical dots will do nothing for the area shaded orange on this map.