Western Rail Corridor / Rail Trail Discussion

Apparently it's the draft report next month, and the full report in Q3 24.

Expect to see *loads* of bits of it in local and euro election guff for June 24

Rosslare Europort (which is owned by IÉ) themselves don't appear to see a future for themselves in rail freight as they are undertaking a massive program of investment but no mention of investment in rail facilities. They obviously see offshore wind turbines and growing their existing RORO business.

To access Rosslare Europort via the South Wexford line, trains would have to pass through Bellview Port which already operates rail freight (the only port in the country to do so now that Tara Mines flows have ceased). If looking to increase rail freight, we should be expanding Bellview and increasing rail capacity to/from it.

Why are north Mayo and now Sligo the only places mentioned in the context of rail freight? Why would this rura pocket have more potential for rail freight than all the other more industrialised areas around the country? Why not a rail hub in West Dublin or around Little Island in Cork? I can only assume that the narrative to link the northwest and rail freight has developed to keep up the pretence that the WRC will reopen.

In fairness, you can't blame Eamon Ryan for the WRC south of Athenry, which was a disgraceful waste of 100 million euro by Fianna Fail which could have been far better spent on other parts of the rail network.

And the WRC north is Sinn Fein policy as well.

As regards Ministers for Transport, we haven't had a good one in this country since Seamus Brennan, and he left office in 2004.

there is a route via sligo to dublin and then to rosslare from dublin, however given that requires travelling through the congested dublin area, it's not a goer for freight.

Jesus not this nonsense again

Because of the failures of dublin the rest or the country cant have any infrastructure?

We shouldnt build any bus lanes outside dublin either until busconnects is done.

Luas is at capacity and we need more lines to serve other parts of the city - cant possibly justify a tram in cork until dublin gets another line..

Etc etc

The projects that deliver the greatest benefit should obviously be prioritised.

Funds are far from limited - we are awash with cash. And there is a rail link to Dublin in planning too, its called Metrolink.

The idea that a potential rail link to Shannon would impact the funding for Metrolink is total nonsense.

That's as maybe - but I read it in exactly the same way as timmynyc did. It may be that you need to rephrase your post, or review how you express yourself.

I'm all in favour of a connection between Dublin and its airport; but there seems to be a lobby that is capable of stymying big infrastructure projects that do not involve road traffic.

As well as the lack of a rail connection to the airport, I'd mention the difficulties around getting the Luas into existence; IIRC it took many years to get the two lines into existence, and weren't there problems around losing EU funding along the way? Not to mention the Western Rail Corridor, and re-opening the Cork to Youghal railway line. I for one can see benefits arising from re-opening the Athenry to Claremorris section of the WRC, and running trains all the way from Ballina to Limerick Junction, with connections onward to both Cork/Kerry and Waterford/Rosslare.

The Port Tunnel was presented to us as though it was the seventh wonder of the world, but the reality is that it is a short tunnel, and of its type, not very difficult piece of engineering. To put it in context, the Faroe Islands (with something like 50,000 people) are currently building just under 20km of road tunnels, to add to the 60km or so of road tunnels already in service. Among them is a 10km-long tunnel to Sandoy, an island with just 1,200 inhabitants, which will open this coming December, while a 25km-long tunnel to Suðuroy (with all of 4,600 people living there) is in the planning stages.

In other words, this idea we have that we shouldn't put resources into infrastructure outside of Dublin is absolutely ridiculous - it is time we moved on from this anti-social 19th-century laissez-faire ideology; always remembering that even then, even in Ireland, the British state poured huge resources into building infrastructure in Ireland - look at our ports, the (mostly disappeared) railway network, bridges, canal, river and lake navegation. It often seems to me that public works since independence were built with official Ireland gritting its teeth and complaining about the waste of money rather than celebrating the fact that the new infrastructure would improve the lives of the many.

Most of the infrastructure you attribute to the British state was built by private companies though.

Indeed.

Post-independence, the massive anti-urban bias of official Ireland inevitably led to a failure to provide infrastructure. This attitude continues to this day.

The head of an airport talking about sustainable transport - what a joke.

What do you base the statement that it's in the wrong place on?

God, I untentionally hit a raw nerve there. I'm sure Knock airport is a fantastic amenity for people in Mayo. But at the time there were serious questions about the costs and benefits of the investment. Now that it's built, these costs are sunk, so no point worrying about them.

My main reason for posting was objection to the "ravings of a priest" comment. Ad hominem stuff should not enter into the argument.

Er, because it doesn't have the connectivity that they're now asking the taxpayer to provide at vast expense?

It's 12 minutes from the N5 and 3 minutes from the N17 so in road terms it's not bad - at Connaught's crossroads as Fr Horan called it. Ideally it would be nearer the the East-West train line at Claremorris but back in the late 70s early 80s, when airport construction began, there was more of an inclination at government level to close stations and lines rather than providing new rail connectivity to anything so it was probably just not factored in. Also,when you consider the challenges in aquiring such a large landbank it really was a huge achievement and it continues to benefit the region in a very big way today.