Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)

The current wobble in government must be a concern to Canney. He can't go to the electorate with his current anti-greenway stance. In the event of an election campaign he will have to either publicly and unambiguously support the greenway or face losing his seat.
An election in June or July would have given him time to blame the rail report on his failure to deliver his train, but going to the country before the rail report is published will be tricky for him.

rebel456 wrote: »

Actually this might work in his favour. He can still hang his voters hopes on the rail report.... even if the outcome is a forgone conclusion. And use the commentary of folks such as Sean Kyne to pat his back on the pro-rail stance.

Whilst I think he's likely to be given the chop by the electorate he does stand a chance of scraping back in if he can convince folks to give him a chance to get stuff done, it has been less than two years.

It could work in his favour on one level, but a couple of things point to him losing his seat. Firstly he is seen clearly in Tuam and Athenry as the person leading the campaign to stop.the investment in the region. Secondly, his 'red line' issue of a rail report within six months of being elected has ruined his credibility as somebody who can be effective in Dail eireann. He enjoyed a unique position of holding the balance of power, so he could have done great things for the area. Instead, he looked for a meaningless report and then didn't even deliver it.
A 'busted flush' is the best term, I think.

Muckyboots wrote: »

http://connachttribune.ie/galway-limerick-passenger-hike-leads-renewed-calls-extension-222/

Hardly a ringing endorsement from IR for WOT here. How times have changed. Doesn't help their case when they take "one-day" station user census figures and try and dress them up as annual passenger figures when the intro to the report expressly states not to do so.
Nice numbers for the Claremorris Greenway though. I think I hear the sound of a pennies dropping, even if some are standing too close to belching diesel engines to hear it.

The desperate sound of straws being clutched in Claremorris. They took one days figures and ignored the reality that numbers are actually falling on the wrc.
They're in trouble. Their pet TD is facing an election at the very worst time; if an election is called now his future is all behind him, back on the council at best and swimming around in the group think tank that is the inter county railway committee, aka the political wing of west on track.
And Sean Kyne is lining up to be the next sacrificial puppet. Backing the wrong horse is a bit of a trend in western politics.

westtip wrote: »

Glad to see that Colman mentioned the greenway, means more people read about the idea and compare it to the idea of the railway that is not going to happen, also I thought Gerry "not up for discussion" Murray of Sinn Fein/West on Track said the Western Rail Corridor was not up for discuss but here the great commander Colman O'Ragerty speaks the G word in the same mention as the railway, pity he didn't mention that West on Track have supported giving away the closed former disused railway to be used as a velorail on a 12 year lease, how come a Velo-Rail is ok for 12 years Colman but not a greenway? Answers on a postcard please.

The anti tourism brigade are gone way beyond logic at this stage. They are like kids in a school yard -- 'It's my ball.and if I can't play, nobody can play'.

voz es wrote: »

''PASSENGERS HIKE LEADS TO RENEWED CALLS FOR A RAIL EXTENSION''

http://connachttribune.ie/galway-limerick-passenger-hike-leads-renewed-calls-extension-222/

Just giving this headline the space it deserves

That headline doesn't deserve space in any serious discussion.
Those census day figures come with a specific health warning, to the effect that they shouldn't be extrapolated to create an annualised figure, but that is what west on track have done. These numbers also include traffic on Athenry-Galway and Ennis-Limerick, skewing them further.
The true numbers (check with Irish Rail, they run the service) on the middle bit, Ennis-Athenry, are down this year and are likely to fall further when the motorway effect beds in fully.
If west on track think that a government or a department of transport will fall for such spurious figures, they are wasting their time. Pro-rail groups can spin this to their hearts content, but anyone who travels on the Ennis Athenry line can see that not enough people are using it.
It's all fine and well lobbying for another white-elephant railway to be built north of Athenry on the old alignment, but if it was built by some miracle, what then? It closed because nobody was using it, and nowadays there are better options than a slow train. Unfortunately the days when we could have lossmaking state-owned services kept open by politicians are over, we can't print our own money any more and we don't have the cash to build or run a railway built to no purpose and used by nobody.
Your contributions to the debate are welcome, but you need to look at the bigger picture and not at the group-think world view of west on track. If opinion formers in the west of Ireland were realists and not just populist message-shouters, the region might start to reverse its decline. As it is, the unwillingness of too many people to accept reality and to seek achievable goals is holding back the west, while other places recognise realities and power ahead.
If you don't believe me, go to Kilmacthomas or Dungarvan any weekend and look at the levels of economic activity, and the services that this activity has revived or created for the benefit of the entire community.

voz es wrote: »

I think it would be indirectly promoting tourism. The more work the line gets the more money would be spent on it. The faster and more frequent the trains.

If a second line was run to Claremorris, unlikely as that might be, it wouldn't create one net job.
The small amount of freight that goes in and out of Mayo is already well catered for with the existing line, an diverting it to another line would make no difference to Mayo. A WOT inspired survey commissioned by the WDC a year or so ago found no case for another line, even when the consultants were allegedly made take their report away and purge it of references to tourism and leisure uses for the route.

voz es wrote: »

I reckon this is fake news, however I said there is no harm in asking.

Is it true that some of the greenway grouping have an UK business man with a marketing company involved in some of their internet presence?

You'd have to ask them. But if you believe the figures churned out by West on track and not the ones coming from Irish Rail, then I'm sure this particular story rings true for you.

voz es wrote: »

You don't know the answer so?

I won't engage in a childish na-na-na-na na argument with you.

voz es wrote: »

Argentina awarded contracts to lay 416 kilo-metres of train track in the northern provinces of Jujuy and Salta as part of its “Plan Belgrano.”

The below link showing, Argentina plans railways to expand agriculture in north

https://www.producer.com/2017/04/argentina-plans-railways-to-expand-agriculture-in-north/

Interesting story, but how is it relevant to this topic?
4.1% of Ireland's farmland is devoted to cereal production, but most of it is grown outside connaught for one simple reason -- most of the land is unsuited to cereal growing.
http://gis.teagasc.ie/soils/map.php