An old chestnut the WRC north of Claremorris

westtip

Driving back from Galway to Sligo this evening at absolute peak times - left Corrib Great Southern Galway about 5.30 pm I have to say the traffic was very light. OK a bit of a hold up at ClareGalway and Tuam - both to be expected but driving along the Claremorris/Knock bypass on the super new road, virtually empty did make me wonder. If a main trunk road (N18) can be so empty at this time of the day, peak commuting time, just where are the passengers for the WRC coming from - or even going to. I know this has been debated much on these boards, but on this lovely late summer evening, listening to 57 live (sorry drivetime) and AA reports about gridlock on the M50, it struck me the rebirth of the WRC, north of Claremorris at least will be totally unnecesary, - and I am a fan of public expenditure on such projects. I actually stopped at one point on the journey (for natural relief), near one of the countless railway crossings and staring down the line - it made me think once again - What a fantastic tourist attraction this line would make - as a long distance footpath - What a fantistic facility it would be for cyclists, families with kids in buggies or aged parents in wheelchairs if a simple path no more than four foot wide was laid down the length of the track from Collooney to Claremorris - would this be in the better interest of the greater majority of the public rather than a rail line - which quite frankly is not required, and will be used by a very small minority and if in many years to come a need arises the maintained foot/cyclepath can once again be laid with rails. I have advocated this idea before and mentioned one of the joys of the peak district in Derbyshire England - The Tissington Trail, just paste these words into Google and see how many businesses in the peak district benefitt from this simple tourist attraction - an old railway line converted into a long distance cycle/foot/buggy/wheelchair path. Then go off and do one teh infamous cost benefit anlalysis much loved by this government and work out what would benefit this area of Mayo/Sligo more - an attractive and unique and realtively cheap tourist attraction or a little used railway line - So why not here in Ireland just take a look at the potential here http://www.cycle-tracks.co.uk/Cycling/TissingtonFrame.html


or this pic attached which for some reason I can't paste into this post

corktina

oho..there are several posters on loonytrainspotters.ie (or whatever it is called:) ) who will boil you in oil for that suggestion.....

Davidth88

A good example of this is the Camelford railway in Cornwall which is now a cycle/walking path and attracts thousands of visitors a year.

How many old branch lines are there in this country , did the railways have the same sort of culling that the BR ones did in the sixties ( Beeching ) ? I don't really know my railway history in this country.

Have most of these old lines been aquired by the adjacent land owners ?

westtip

corktina wrote:

oho..there are several posters on loonytrainspotters.ie (or whatever it is called:) ) who will boil you in oil for that suggestion.....

They may well boil me in oil, I live in county Sligo and in my right mind I could never imagine getting the train from Collooney to Galway - especially after the N18 Atlantic highway is completed, and the same goes for Limerick (esp when Ennis is bypassed and the shannon tunnel is complete), as for volume of passengers. I doubt you would ever get enough on a single train to fill a standard bus. The truth is - and even the rail enthusiasts should recognise this - the facility might be nice to have and some kind of dream, but simply isn't needed, energy would be better spent on campaigning for Athlone Mullingar line to be opened to provide the sligo line with a link to Galway, or reaching a compromise on the western route as proposed on the P11 website - which I am not a member of BTW but browsed their site the other day and feel their arguments about WRC (in particular north of Claremorris) are well founded. I think this whole notion of the WRC north of Claremorris at least has become like a mantra for some up here in the North West, the truth is it won't make one jot of difference to the economy of the North West, this is not a Knock Airport type of infrastructure which was great piece of vision - I truly believe a Tissington Trail kind of development would actually bring jobs and money into the area - and would be of much greater benefit to the inhabitants in this area. I have two small kids and live within a twenty minute drive of the WRC Collooney/Claremorris line, there is nothing I would like better at the weekend or summer evening to be able to take their bikes and cycle with them without fear of being hit by a 4x4, Another photo from one of the many sites you find when you google tissington trail is attached - take a look at it below and ask yourself, would this be of greater benefit to the people of Sligo Mayo (and indeed to visitors to the area) rather than a rail line with two trains a day each way carrying one man and his dog. The greater good and the greater opportunity has to be considered. The pics below are attachments are the kind of thing I would love to see on our own section of the WRC Collooney to Claremorris - not sure how you can insert them in a poste? could someone please let me know.

dowlingm

Waterford CC have just offered for tenders on 30km (IIRC) conversion to trail of the Kilmeaden-Dungarvan railway alignment.

westtip

dowlingm wrote:

Waterford CC have just offered for tenders on 30km (IIRC) conversion to trail of the Kilmeaden-Dungarvan railway alignment.

any idea where I can find the tender documents?

dowlingm

Google comes up with:

http://www.ga.etenders.gov.ie/search/search_show.aspx?ID=AUG066012

Teideal: Development of Old Dungarvan to Waterford Railway Line as Walking / Cycling Route
Údarás Dámhachtana: Waterford County Council
Dáta Foilsithe: 22-Aug-2006
Spriocdháta Iarratais:
Spriocdháta Tairisceana: 05-Sep-2006
Spriocam Tairisceana: 17:00
Cineál Fógra: Tairiscint
Doiciméid Ann: Is ea
Achomaireacht: Waterford County Council is currently seeking Expressions of Interest from Contractors for the Development of the Old Dungarvan to Waterford Railway Line as a Walking / Cycling Route

Summary of Project:
Waterford County Council holds the old Dungarvan to Waterford Railway Line under licence from CIE and Iarnród Éirean. WCC intends to convert the line of the rail track into a Walking / Cycling Route with a trail tread width of 2200 mm. The Walking / Cycling Route is to be an artery for non-motorised transport in the manner of walking, cycling and in some locations horse riding.

The proposed development stretches for over 30 km from Ballinroad Cross (Junction of R675 and L-3011-0 - some 4 km east of Dungarvan) to Kilmeaden Railway Station (At junction of the line with R680, some 10 km west of Waterford City). The route traverses agricultural land in southern Waterford with a total of 15 No. road crossings. The line is described as Dismantled Railway on the Ordnance Survey Discovery Series Maps No. 75 and 82.

Works proposed on the route are:
Clearance of vegetation
Securing of trail surface (e.g. laying of tarmacadam or unbound aggregate, drainage)
Installation of trail furniture
Installation of safety features inc fencing over bridges, tunnel lighting and road safety signing and lining)


It is intended that the vast majority of the contract would be completed before the end of 2006

westtip

That is fantastic news, thank you for the link, it will be a hugely used resource by local people and visitors alike. Good luck to Waterford CC - I just hope a similar thing can be done with the northern section of the WRC - if people opened their eyes and don't just see an old railway track which must become a railway track again which no one will use then someone might just see sense in how this public resource can be used today - to benefit a much great section of the public.

dowlingm

I'd like to see the line from Kilmeaden eastward stay available to future LRT/rail though... you never know.

Victor

westtip wrote:

That is fantastic news, thank you for the link, it will be a hugely used resource by local people and visitors alike.

But won't someone think of the constant stream of traffic past some peoples windows?

westtip

Victor wrote:

But won't someone think of the constant stream of traffic past some peoples windows?

Victor, I share your cynicisim, no doubt someone who has built a 7 bedroom mansion, having had planning permission for a cow shed, but once the mansion was built didn't the council say "sure its built now we may as well give you retrospective permission", in the middle of nowhere but which happend to back onto this line and have now claimed squatting rights to the railway line as an attractive feature of their back garden, and fear their constitutional rights are being violated by all these people with buggies and bycycles walking along this track..........no doubt it will end up with the need for a national referendum.