How did the track to Mayo survive when many others didnt

veryangryman

Curious here. Most lines go to cities from Dublin but the Westport and Ballina you could argue don't serve a large enough base. How did they survive when say cork to rosslare didnt

Enda

sundodger5

Asahi and tourists?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120402967#Comment_120402967

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120402975#Comment_120402975

Both Enda and Asahi are from later than when most of the major line closures occurred.

There would have been a reasonable, for the time, level of both passenger and freight traffic on the line. Sligo is another oddity considering that until 1981 there wasn't a single passenger stop between Connolly and Mullingar! Again, there would have been enough freight to/from Sligo when the axe was falling in the 60s; and the late 70s cuts were smaller branch lines.

Cosmo Kramer

Not only did the main track survive but the spur line to Ballina held on as well.

There was a lot of freight on the line up to the early 1990s, going to both Ballina and Westport. The main line did originally go to Achill but was cut back to Westport, which was probably fair enough at the time. Probably a combination of the amount of passenger and freight traffic on the line kept it open to Westport, while the Ballina link survived mainly due to freight I'd say.

Would have been a disaster if it had gone, it's a huge asset now. Just a shame the airport wasn't built alongside it in the 80s, rather than up in Charlestown. Still think there should be a connecting bus between the airport and Ballyhaunis included into the timetable with integrated ticketing etc.

Donegal really suffered by allowing their rail link to be completely cut. Surprising they didn't march on Dublin at the time to save it.

"Donegal really suffered by allowing their rail link to be completely cut. Surprising they didn't march on Dublin at the time to save it."

The cnic in me would say by the time they realized it, there was no way to get to Dublin.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120403402#Comment_120403402

All of Donegal's connectivity going through NI meant they were always going to be hard to keep; plus with the exception of the line to Bundoran they were:

a: narrow gauge

b: never nationalised

Narrow gauge meant freight interworking was impossible without manual transfer of stuff (containers didn't exist yet and wouldn't have worked with the loading gauge when they did), passengers would have to transfer, etc; as well as more specialist rolling stock required. Not nationalised meant there was no Department to blame for cutting services. The CDJRC would have been part British government owned after 1948 - LMS having been nationalised - but not ROI government.

Cosmo Kramer

Fair point, there was never a link built between Donegal and Sligo, so any connection to Dublin or anywhere else in the Republic would have to have been through the north which clearly would have been an issue back then.

In terms of the OPs reference of Cork to Rosslare, presumably the difference there is that the Mayo line connects straight to Dublin. The lines in Mayo that didn't travel towards Dublin, such as Charlestown down to Ballindine (and on to Tuam in Galway) were also lost.

PolmacD

Southern Ulster counties were hit hard and the border wasn’t always in the way. GNRI line from Dundalk-Castleblayney-Clones and MGWR line to Cavan off Sligo line are prime examples. Why these “branches” got the chop while so many others didn’t?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120504622#Comment_120504622

Long branch lines to small towns across thinly populated areas. One you chopped the INWR line back to Clones it wasn't viable; and the Inny Junction to Cavan line served basically nowhere else on the way.