Old West Clare railway line.

It would be a great amenity and would surely be great for cycle tourism. The Great Southern Trail on the old Limerick-Tralee line seems to be developing well. They have a 35 km section between Rathkeale and Abbeyfeale open so far, hopefully they'll have the whole 85 km line open as a greenway eventually.

I guess funding is the biggest barrier to opening up the West Clare line. Another issue is reclaiming the land alone the line which might either now be privately owned or at least used by private land owners. This was a problem faced by the Great Sothern Trail despite the land and remaining infrastructure still being owned by C.I.E. Since these lines were closed in 1960 they have been almost completely dismanteled except for the bare track bed. A lot of the bridges/viaducts would need to be reinstated or other type of crossing put in place. There's still a small section of the line in use at Moyasta and I'm not sure what shape the crossing at Poulnasherry bay is in.

I think you can walk along the old line from Kilkee as far as Poulnasherry bay but it's not a purpose made walking route. Hopefully it'll be on the agenda some day!

This has been talked about for years but the obstacle of land owners keeps cropping up. Should be completely re-opened as a functional railway which would be an enormous tourist attraction & would complement the Wild Atlantic Way. It's been done dozens of times with great success in the UK & there's no reason why it couldn't be done here - if the will is there & maybe that's the problem!

Landowners and funding, they're your two biggest problems. The Kerry projects, which have great potential for long-distance routes are dogged by nimbys and modern day Bull McCabes.

Rebuilding it as a railway is complete pie-in-the-sky. It didn't make money when there was hardly any competition from cars on the road, how could it possibly make money now?

Jim Martin wrote: »

Then how did the narrow gauge railways in Wales (Ffestiniog/Talyllyn/Vale of Rheidol) manage it - they were in exactly the same boat? Too much negativity in this country - that's why it's destroyed!

Comparing Wales and West Clare is like comparing chalk and cheese....

The Welsh ng lines would never have survived but for British (and lets be frank) English enthusiasts, putting their backs AND money into restoration. You wouldn't believe the amount of money that is donated and bequeathed to built and maintain steam railways in the uk and build full size main line steam locomotives. Look up the 'Tornado project' for instance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Peppercorn_Class_A1_60163_Tornado
Irish people are just not interested on the same level, GAA, the gee gees and dhrink are what we excel at. There was a proposal a number of years ago for a national transport museum in Mullingar for rail, road and canal that died a death with political infighting and general indifference.

We clap ourselves on the back by thinking we are somehow 'heritage minded' apart from a few kitchy attractions the likes of Blarney and Bunratty, industrial heritage in particular barely registers on Tourism Ireland's radar and thus gets next to no support. It's all Cliffs of Moher, Book of Kells and Newgrange.

Ireland does not have a heritage lottery fund like the uk, that's why the Downpatrick Railway exists up north and the RPSI (Railway Preservation Soc of Ireland) gets benefits from being a cross border organisation.

You don't have a critical mass of population here like the uk to (a) support by volunteering or (b) support with bums on seats.

In many cases, sucessful preserved railways in the uk were taken over when the rails were still in place, and handed over intact, rather than a greenfield site with plenty engines and carriages that they could use almost straight away. How many West Clare vehicles are currently surviving? Not a whole lot tbf. We were packing emigration boats without an a*se to our trousers when the railways were closing down here, there was disposable income and free time to go volunteering in the uk and again, an interest.

EDIT: The VOR is a bit of a strange one, it would be like CIE/Irish Rail running the West Clare into modern times...it was run by British Rail for the tourist market until privatised in 1989 and never ceased running with the exeption of wartime.

poppyvally wrote: »

Ye missed my point. I'm talking about a cycling/ pedestrian trail only. Surely that would'nt be that difficult & think of the tourist potential, now that cycling & marathons have become so popular.

See my first point? Landowners and money.

The blockaders down in Kerry can't see potential for anything beyond their own little fiefdoms. That said, the trail so far through West Limerick has been helped along the way be less benighted members of the farming community.

However that land was always in CIE ownership, the West Clare has been sold off or otherwise taken over by surrounding landowners as CIE washed their hands of it back in the 60's. A lot of sheds and houses have been built on it in the meantime, embankments levelled and cuttings filled in.

I thought CIE still owns the trackbed?

If Ireland's population is 1/15th the size of the UK's, then on the basis of their dozens of lines preserved, we should be able to manage one!