Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)

deisegreenway wrote: »

Sorry we cant help ye on this as we're below the 50 posts so no photo uploads allowed.

From our campaign's point of view, people took a while to come around to the idea that it's not just about creating a path...a greenway is a tourist attraction that many people will visit a region especially for, it's a place for locals of all ages to meet up with friends/family for a cycle/walk, it directly and indirectly creates jobs, it's a way of popping over to the next village, it's a way to commute, it's a way to get to your fishing spot.

Waterford as a county is really starting to see the potential now and the Kilmacthomas post we put up on Facebook this week gave us our best indication of this. We've had emails from Dunhill, Dunmore East, Portlaw, Lismore, Cappoquin...none of these are on the Deise Greenway route but they want to be connected to it somehow!

Hi deisegreenway,

It got too late last night, I was going to contact you to ask if I could use some of your photos to upload to the thread here. I could link them directly but they are HUGE, boards.ie have an image upload max size of 800px. I can download them, resize and upload directly to the thread here? Or if the mods allow, I can direct link them, but they are big!

Some photos, courtesy of Deise Greenway and their Facebook Page

What can be achieved and the spin off from tourism.













Thanks to Deise Greenway for sending these on. They have loads more photos on their website and facebook page, do check them out.

elastico wrote: »

Join this Deise greenway to Rosslare port, Limerick Junction and New Ross anybody?

Steam trains from Athenry to Tuam so cycle tourists could also connect from LJ to Westport -Achill greenway, Tralee - Fenit greenway etc.

Waterford to New Ross via the old railway goes to planning this year.
St Mullins (just north of New Ross) to Athy and beyond along the Barrow towpath goes to planning in Q1

BoatMad wrote: »

I certainly would not support a waterford to limerick junction greenway, that has an operating railway and that should be the focus

There is no way greenway proposals should ever been seen as a quick solution to allow the removal of an operating railway

Put it in as a parallel greenway; keep the line.

Speaking as somebody who has walked the whole Royal canal, having the railway beside it simplifies the logistics of the walk enormously. You can very easily break the walk into sections and take the train back at the end of the day. It makes it possible for people to decide to walk a route over the course of six months and so expands the potential users of the greenway away from those capable of walking 150km in few days off.

Admittedly the Sligo line is a bit of a special case as there is plenty of space to have a greenway on the canal which never gets too far from the railway before Mullingar.

eastwest wrote: »

Put it in as a parallel greenway; keep the line.

Good idea for Athenry to Limerick as well - parallel railway and greenway all the way - it would increase usage of the railway as well - bike one way train the other. nice day out .....Oh and yes I know IR would have to allow bikes on trains.

deisegreenway wrote: »

Waterford to New Ross via the old railway goes to planning this year.
St Mullins (just north of New Ross) to Athy and beyond along the Barrow towpath goes to planning in Q1

Good for you guys, we have only just turned the corner in getting the decision from the Minister of Transport that the Western Rail Trail is now the preferred option of the Department of Transport for the closed railway from Athenry to Collooney in county Sligo; your pics on your FB page show what the potential is, the businesses in the west in the tourism trade are delighted with the Governments decision and hope they will get it moving as soon as possible, It's looking positive though for the western rail trail as well.

westtip wrote: »

Good for you guys, we have only just turned the corner in getting the decision from the Minister of Transport that the Western Rail Trail is now the preferred option of the Department of Transport for the closed railway from Athenry to Collooney in county Sligo; your pics on your FB page show what the potential is, the businesses in the west in the tourism trade are delighted with the Governments decision and hope they will get it moving as soon as possible, It's looking positive though for the western rail trail as well.

It certainly is looking positive, 2014 may well have been a landmark year for your campaign. We check your Facebook page almost daily for updates and more good news. Unfortunately all these things take an eternity, the Deise Greenway project is a decade old now...with 4km completed in that time.

BoatMad wrote: »

I can't see IR agreeing to significant greenways along side active active railway, ( and I have my views as Ive aired them hear as to the practicality of even having them run in such a way as a line could be re-open,

If you walk any significant amount of single line, you will see that the railways uses all that space for spoil, ballast etc, not to mention cabling , electrical cabinetry etc

the key at the moment is to ensure IR don't continue to deactivate the network. Greenways are an entirely different argument.

They're happy enough to do it in every other country where lines aren't being expanded. Google 'rails with trails' and see the US experience.
The benefits to railroads companies in the US were as follows:

Reduced liability costs;
Financial compensation.
Reduced petty crime, trespassing, dumping, and vandalism;
Reduced illegal track crossings through channelization of users to grade-separated or well-designed at-grade crossings;
Increased public awareness of railroad company service;
Increased tourism revenue;
Increased adjacent property values; and
Improved access to transit for law enforcement and maintenance vehicles

In Ireland, we have no problem routing bike lanes (unfenced) alongside the Luas line in Dublin, or behind a chainlink fence along the DART line in Seapoint. We also don't see the need to separate bikes from trucks on minor roads, but we balk at running trains behind a fence along a bike path.
It's a mindset thing, but all we have to do is copy the experience elsewhere. Services can be run under paths no problem; there is a 220 kv powerline under the grand Union canal towpath out of London, and another one under the canal path in Dublin in Inchicore.
everything is possible; minor problems are just engineering issues to be sorted. Political thinking is the biggest hurdle, always was. Let the engineers have it and they'll sort it, they always do.

westtip wrote: »

Just in case you think I have got myself an influential job on the editorial side of the Irish Times, I haven't. But one word to say about todays lead in the IT.

WOW!!!!

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/open-the-greenway-1.2062388

Someone in the IT has taken a very big interest in the WRC alright. What did you think of their suggestion for a commuter link from Tuam to Galway?

sonnyblack wrote: »

Someone in the IT has taken a very big interest in the WRC alright. What did you think of their suggestion for a commuter link from Tuam to Galway?

A big slice of the commuter traffic from Tuam to Galway is headed for the industrial sites on the North side of the city. These will be accessible in fifteen minutes from Tuam once the motorway opens. The rest will be a further ten minutes by bus; the train hasn't a chance of competing with buses on time and price, as well as convenience; the station is away from everything but the shopping areas.
The so-called 'western rail corridor' is dead in the water, it's just not going to happen in any shape or form in the next forty years at least. The Times is dead right to call for the Western rail Trail to be built now though, it's a complete no-brainer and it's now the only way to protect the asset. Once farmers and other would-be squatters have absorbed the news that the railway is definitely not happening, the barbed wire will be going up everywhere as people rush to grab a bit of public land that they know is being officially abandoned. The squatting might be bad already, but it will escalate now.

elastico wrote: »

Small bit of truth stretching there!

The asset has already been protected, it was fenced off and cleared a few years ago! Yes a greenway is probably the best way to protect it, but not the only way!

Nobody has mentioned officially abandoning the line either, we all know its as good as abandoned years ago anyway but I don't see any new official announcement on this.

Unfortunately, the fencing off of much of the south Sligo stretch has been ignored; sections of it have been completely subsumed into private farms and gardens. Even in the fenced-off sections, some bits have been taken over as cattle-wintering areas, dumps for waste and storage areas for silage and farm machinery. In the case of silage, storing it on CIE property avoids polluting waterways directly from the farms in question but allows the pollution to happen without any kind of censure.
The northern section in Sligo is already almost lost with fences, driveways and gardens built on it in several places.
Any kind of official signal that the line is a dead duck (and anyone who read recent announcements differently is not listening) will inevitably bring out the barbed wire everywhere as farmers make sure that none of their neighbours capture the bit that runs alongside their own properties, as well as grabbing what they can for themselves. It is now effectively a free for all, and short of CIE suddenly finding a budget to patrol a line that they have no interest in, a greenway is the best way to protect the asset for future generations.

bizguy wrote: »

If you stole €50 off someone walking in the street, it'd be theft and you'd be in the barracks.
If you took someone's car and never gave it back, it'd be theft and you'd be in the barracks.

How can people STEAL land that's not theirs and be allowed get away with it?

because nobody has the balls to do anything about it.