Ennis Limerick rail line

And I notice the 0915 ex Limerick which was usually formed of a 4-car 2800 class is now departing Ennis at 1000 as a 22000. Not sure if this is due to new carriages coming on stream but most likely due to flooding.

Outside of the North West and a small bit of the South Midlands, everywhere had above average rain for the past 6 weeks including here. Likely still months.

Ths really isn't an OPW issue. That area floods naturally and trying to prevent it would cause flooding elsewhere (the water has to go somewhere). It's a place where water gathers, that wouldn't be an issue if they hadn't run a rail line through it. Whatever you propose to prevent the flooding probably wouldn't get planning approval anyway due to ecological impact of whatever you do.

The solutions are raising the rail line or diverting the rail line. Both of these would be for IÉ to undertake and both are likely easier than trying to stop the water accumulating there and dealing with it somewhere else. If IÉ want to continue operating the rail service, they either look for a solution or they accept that at certain times it will not be possible for the service to operate.

Can you provide a link to the report you are referring to because this report finds raising the rail line to be the preferred option;

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/32/joint_committee_on_rural_and_community_development/submissions/2018/2018-05-23_briefing-iarnrod-eireann-2015-rps-report-on-ballycar-flood-study_en.pdf

The works proposed under the preferred option are summarised in below:

Option 4 was chosen as:

 It provides the least ecological impact on the SAC of Lough Gash and the least impact on the pNHAs of Lough Finn and Rosroe Lough

 It does not increase flood risk elsewhere in the catchment especially at the internationally important air control communication infrastructure.

 It has the least negative effect on geology and hydrogeology in the area

Raising the rail line could be combined with providing a section of double track to allow trains to pass which would further improve the Cost/Benefit Analysis for that option.

the line from limerick through to mayo was in use really up until the late 90s early 2000s for freight and some enthusiast tours/specials operated .
the limerick to ennis section had passenger services restored in i think 1994?
limerick to ennis is part of the WRC and it was relayed at least in 2010.
i'm not sure of the flooding issues but i would presume they did exist, not really an issue for steam trains but for the diesel locos it might have been depending on how high the water was as traction motors ETC would get flooded which is not good.

From the report I linked to above;

Flooding of the railway track in the vicinity of Ballycar Lough is a long-standing problem. This section of the Ennis–Limerick line was flooded on a number of occasions in the past. The railway track at Ballycar Lough was flooded, most notably in the years of 1994, 1995, 2009 and 2014. According to Iarnrod Eireann, the railway track was flooded on approximately 14 occasions since 1930. This flooding has led to temporary closures of the railway line for a maximum period of 16 weeks during the 1994 and 2014 flooding events and 8 weeks during the November 2009 flooding event.

Happy to see some progress here. Any idea if a passing loop will form part of station plan. Its a stop ill use a lot for commuting to work and games so happy to see it moving.

Is this to sort the flooding?

Fair enough 🙄

Diggers were in place at Clarecastle train station certainly