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A REVIEW OF Ireland’s rail network is set to recommend reopening a number of regional lines, including some that had been earmarked for greenways.
If implemented it would see long-dormant lines in the west and southeast brought back into use while there are also plans to improve frequency and links between Ireland’s cities.
The All Island Strategic Rail Review was jointly commissioned by governments north and south in 2021.
It has been examining the future of the system, how to improve connectivity for major cities and regions, while boosting connections between the island’s ports. British engineering firm Arup has undertaken the review.
Rail is among the public transport options to benefit from the introduction of half-price tickets for students and young people and a 20% reduction for all other adults last year, as the government aims to meet climate targets.
The Journal understands the review, which is in draft form at present, will propose reviving a disused rail line in Co Wexford potentially linking towns along the east coast of the country, connecting Dublin, Rosslare and Waterford.
In the west, a line linking the towns of Athenry in Galway and Claremorris in Mayo will also return to use under the draft proposal. This will initially be for freight with the potential to introduce passengers services if successful.
A line between Letterkenny and Derry is understood to also figure, although it would need to be built from scratch as the tracks were taken up generations ago.
Campaign groups and some politicians have called for existing lines to be used where possible due to the cheaper cost involved in updating the infrastructure.
But these proposals mark a change in policy as both the west and southeast lines were set to be converted into greenway cycle routes, until a concerted push by Western Rail Corridor and other local campaigners to keep the tracks for their former purpose.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan indicated his own support for these regional links, telling the Dáil late last month that Wexford “will have to be developed” given Rosslare Europort’s growing importance for shipping and wind industries.
The Limerick-Foynes line is already being redeveloped and a spokesperson for Ryan told The Journal that the “next part of the jigsaw” is the Athenry-Claremorris rail line.
“This would mean that we would have a rail line from Ballina to Wexford with connectivity to key ports – for people, for freight and for the development of our offshore wind capacity,” the spokesperson said.
Any projects that receive approval would need to then be put forward for funding from the National Transport Authority.
Improving the west’s rail network has been an issue for decades with locals, including Colman Ó Raghallaigh, of the Western Rail Corridor group, lobbying hard for the return to rail.
He pointed to the growth in passenger numbers in the Galway to Limerick intercity rail service as a sign of demand after it had its busiest period last year since it re-opened in 2010.
Passenger numbers grew by 14% compared with the last pre-pandemic year of 2019.
He said the group had campaigned to prevent the closure of the railway line from Athenry to Claremorris, and hopes that its reopening would enhance the case for bringing back the line northwards into Sligo.
Other plans under consideration in the rail review include “high speed connectivity” between Belfast, Dublin and Cork, but it is expected that this will be a longer-term aim.
“If we were to lose any of these railway lines and wanted to try bring them back, it can cost you millions if not billions,” Ó Raghallaigh said.
“The land-take of most railways would be the width of a modern road, so you’d be looking at a very expensive land purchase and a long, drawn out, expensive construction process if you wanted to do a 40km-long track for example.
“That’s why we can’t lose them.”
A greenway connection in the southeast stretching to a total length of over 70km has been in the works for several years in the region, but the draft proposal could see rail take priority over the track running through south Wexford.
Waterford Green Party TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh said “one option doesn’t need to cancel out the other ” when deciding the use of a track, and believes the proposed South East Greenway should continue using a “differently aligned” route.
However, he said there have been examples of disused rail routes being torn up for cycle routes which he disagreed with, singling out the Youghal-Middleton line in Co Cork.
“If that was returned as a rail track it would have taken a lot of pressure off the N25 corridor from west Waterford and surrounding parts, allowing people to drive as far as Youghal and take the train,” he said.
“That was an instance where we went down the greenway route when we might have been better served to invest in rail.”
However, the publishing of the review may be some time away yet, as the Department of Transport has confirmed it will be published “once it has received appropriate Ministerial approval from both jurisdictions”, which will not be possible as long as Stormont continues not to sit for business.
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Trains are faster than bicycles and carry more people too……..
@Disco Inferno: Try telling that to Iarnrod Éireann and Cork County Council who between then scuppered any hope of reopening the Youghal to Midleton railway line by shoving a greenway there instead.
@Leonard Barry: That hasn’t started yet, so it’s not a lost cause. A rail link from Youghal to Middleton and on to Cork is absolutely essential for that region. How anyone thinks that a greenway is more beneficial is hard to figure out.
@Tom Leddy: the greenway from midleton to youghal is nearly done. Stage 1 is opening soon which will be midleton to mogeely. Rest is opening next year
@Louise Tracey: OK. I stand corrected. I thought it was still at the design stage. That’s a disaster for the area and a lost opportunity to try and get some of the thousands of cars that take that route every day off the road.
@Tom Leddy: they had decades to do it and then all of a sudden throw the toys out when it’s too late. Can they not do both? The country is awash with money.
@Disco Inferno: Greenways cost almost nothing to run. If you put in rail, there is no guarantee it will be used by fee paying customers meaning massive subsidies
@Tom Leddy: How dare you Sir, How dare you contradic Éamonn Ryan.
@Mickety Dee: iIn Europe rail fares are being slashed or done away with. Railways are primarily there to get people from A to B efficiently, that is the benefit to society and commerce. We don’t complain about public funds (=subsidies) for roads.
@Mickety Dee: Who’s going to use a greenaway to get from say Youghal to Midleton or Cork City for work, college, hospital appointments, social and sports events, shopping etc. Distance between Youghal and Midleton is 26km and Cork City is a further 22km away. As one well know Cork Green Pary member put it ” An Opportunity Missed” by putting a greenaway in instead of reopening the railway line.
@Leonard Barry: It’s not as simple as that. You spend it on the railway, you have less to spend on other things. You might be able to get to the hospital but may not be able to get that operation. Of course local TDs will push a railway line knowing the costs are likely to be subsidized nationally rather than locally
What will happen is nothing – no new Greenways, no new train lines. Irish rail will commit to building everywhere from Skibberean to Letterkenny and the tax payer will foot the bill for buying all the land from farmers who have squatting rights. But in the end SFA will happen because Irish Rail have zero ambition.
A wonderful stat about Irish rail – one new station opened in the last 9 years in the entire country. ‘station’ is being generous as it’s just a couple of uncovered platforms in Pelletstown
@dreiglaser: you can’t even get a cup of coffee on the cork Dublin train.hard to see them even laying a metre of track.
@dreiglaser: Since when were Irish Rail responsible for building new rail lines? It’s like saying your local haulage or bus company are responsible for building roads. These are national infrastructure projects, do a little reading.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: your comparison makes no sense. Roads are shared infrastructure. Railways in Ireland are not. Irish rail are the sole train operator in the Republic and are responsible for every inch of track. You might as well have compared trains to pedestrians in your bizarre analogy.
@dreiglaser: I never said Irish Rail were not responsible for maintaining and even upgrading our current rail infrastructure.
Your bizarre comment shows your lack of understanding of capital investment projects when it comes to building new rail infrastructure.
And by the way, Irish Rail are not the sole operator of trains in Ireland. They are the biggest. We have NIR, RPSI, etc. We even had Belmond up to recently.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: I’ll just leave this example of a capital rail infrastructure project here for you to ponder over. Notice the way the logo matches the Irish Rail one…https://www.dartplus.ie/en-ie/projects/dart-west
So if I was in Letterkenny and wanted to travel by train to our capital city I would have to get a train from Letterkenny to Derry, then get another from Derry to Belfast and another from Belfast to Dublin. It’s almost like our government wishes Donegal was a part of Northern Ireland
@Simon Hughes: it makes more sense than sending the train down towards Bundoran and then around Lough Melvin.
@Simon Hughes: or you could spend a week on a slow line to athenry before catching a slow train to Dublin.
The draft review apparently examines the idea of linking Derry to Portadown, which is the obvious route to Dublin fir anyone in Letterkenny.
@Fuji Hakayito: surely the Sligo line being brought up through Bundoran and Donegal town and onto Letterkenny would make more sense
Ryan and his pet bike project has cost us the Youghal Midleton rail line ,it would have been fantastic to see 1000,s getting off the train in Youghall again.
@trebloc01: Travelled many times as a kid with my parents back in the late fifties and early sixties on the train to Youghal in the summer months to spend a day on the beach which was just a 2 minute walk from Youghal train station, train used to be packed with people from Cork City as that was the only mode of transport they had of ever getting to the sea in the summer months as few people owned cars back then. Just imagine how popular it would be now and the prosperity lt would bring to Youghal if it was to reopen again considering Cork City has a population of over 220,000 and getting to any beach in Cork is a nightmare these days with traffic.
The train line to Navan needs to be reopened as a commuter service to Dublin..
Sleepy jesus eamo having a nightmare as I type. Lovin it
@Paul Gorry: sleepy jesus. Hilarious. Another bon mot
@Philip Kennedy: Another reply from the resident clown on the journal comments. One day Philip one day you will be funny. Now iam not holding me breath tho. Although keep the faith.
@Paul Gorry: how dare you. I’m not resident.
@Paul Gorry: ach houl yer whisht Paul
@Aidy McBride: c’mon Aidy i respect you!! Please don’t slip to Philips level.
@Paul Gorry: thanks Paul, I thought you had me categorised at that level already lol
South and West but Donegal left out again.
@Liam Tighe: Letterkenny is in Donegal!
@Liam Tighe: actually Liam it’s the South West with all its tourist potential ( Cork and Kerry) that’s being left out.
beginning construction to reopen Athenry to Claremorris at the same time as limerick to foynes is a no brainer. That should start immediately.
@Peter O’Donovan: It makes more financial sense to upgrade the athenry to Galway line before spending money on a new loss making service for freight given that the m17 motorway runs parallel to athenry – Claregalway line.
The Limerick athenry service which cost €106M 13 years ago, is far too slow to be viable. Most of these new services would cost similar amounts & be just as slow & expensive.
@John Murphy: Nuts how they can’t just go with opening the line as far as Tuam. There’s a serious need given how clogged and polluted Galway is with car traffic. Even a government that despises public transport ought to acknowledge this.
And yes – Galway – Athenry section ought to be double tracked. The passing loop at Oranmore was a waste of time.
Build a train station in North Drogheda. Population set to grow buy 7000+ houses.
Let’s please increase the frequency of trains between Waterford and Dublin, particularly at weekends. It would also be great to have some later trains. Peak hour trains are useful but they should run every hour up until midnight.
Until rail prices are lower than driving your own car, which will bring you to the door, I can’t see the point of new lines on rural routes. Commuter routes possibly ok. Does the rosslare track not carry very small nos of passengers and doesn’t even align with ferry times for instance – at least it didn’t back a couple of years ago.
@Roland Tarrant: another expamle of that, non train related, arrived to Knock from Bergamo last week, only had carry on so was through the airport in a few mins, Bus Éireann bus was already on the way out of the car park, didn’t effect me as I was driving but still, you would imagine there would be some thinking about linking bus times to flight arrivals / departures
@Roland Tarrant: train prices are already reasonable here & cheaper than the UK.
Rail prices in & around Dublin are really cheap and I found myself paying multiples of the cost in Germany recently for similar journeys.
@Roland Tarrant: Well they can always time the trains so that they do link with the ferries if the line was to be reopened. Building railway infrastructure isn’t necessarily about catering to demand that is already there. Its about creating demand in time. Railways will attract businesses and make people consider moving out of cities when they have an easy rail link available. That’s one of the reasons the Galway limerick line is getting busier in my opinion. It may take years to generate that demand but its worth it.
@Roland Tarrant: I travelled it in 2003 – single passenger carriage on the train, practically all commuters out of Waterford who had presumably got lifts, bus whatever in the morning. Few went to Rosslare. There was another carriage which I think was for mail, packages etc
@Paul Holland: They should also ensure that the service is of use to passengers travelling to and from Dublin from South Wexford. Without a connection to Dublin you are undermining passenger numbers considerably.
In the case of the Letterkenny many of the old tracks are now arterial roads; for example the N13 dual carriageway and the Pearse road. It’s not simply a case they’d need rebuilt the railways where they were but they,d need to be rerouted etc. I’m sure other towns are the same.
Great news.
I barely missed out on travelling Claremorris to Collooney by rail (my family couldn’t afford the cost of a football special from Athenry to Sligo in 1964). In 1985 I walked Claremorris to Kiltimagh along the track but subsequently the line got too overgrown for me to resume the journey. In recent times I hoped for a Greenway – now it’s reports, reviews etc which will likely mean no action. And time is going for me and others…
The rail review may well say re-open Athenry Claremorris, this will require EU funding at the very least, and as the route is not part of TEN-T Eu funding it simply won’t happen. Paper never refuses ink and putting it in a strategy as desirable is no guarentee of delivery, what will happen is that it will be put in the rail review and not delivered and there will be no greenway and no railway, sure won’t that be great then so, a politician can puff his chest out and say we got it in the rail strategy but we are not going to build it, aren’t I a great fellow then so.
Tullow to Dublin, open it up again!
Hilarious how the Gren Party YTD wants the railway lines and the cycle track, I saw one of their drawings, A two way cycle track beside the railway line. Safety never comes into their minds. All the greenways are still in the posession of Irish Rail but they dont have the money nor the authority to reopen lines.
Thats government, the department of transport and the NTA.
Minister is stuck as he could be the minister respinsible for taking out cycling lanes LOL.
The build it and they will cone policy favoured by the greens means this should all be starting next week. Without consultation or planning like most of the other things they have done.
Who’s going to pay for this nonsense? The taxpayer of course. The Govt already HEAVILY subsidise Bus Eireann who travel with mostly empty buses only because its a ‘public service’. Now they’re going to subsidise empty trains as well…
@Frank Flanagan: trains are packed.
I’m largely in favor of the rail line opening from Rosslare to Waterford but my concern is the cost of upgrading the line to current standards I.e cement sleepers new rail lengths new crossing gates new digital signalling rather than semaphore new ballast upgrade stations and construct stations ( ballycullanne Campile ) construct new pedestrian over bridge at Wellingtonbridge station. The SnE will be extra busy on the Barrow Bridge upgrading that as its currently in the pinned open for river traffic.
Finally some good news. Hopefully it happens soon. Badly needed.
There’s plenty of room to have the greenways running alongside many of the tracks without eating into surrounding lands. Is there some feckin’ safety boundary limit regulation that just needs modification?
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