[article] Cullen defends railway timeframe

Navan Junction

Lorna Siggins , Irish Times, 27/09/2006


Minister for Transport Martin Cullen has defended the timetable for developing the western rail corridor and said that the Government is "moving it as quickly as we can".


However, funding for the second phase - between Athenry and Tuam, Co Galway - will be subject to a "fuller appraisal" by Iarnród Éireann, the Minister confirmed in Athenry yesterday when he announced that he had approved first phase financing through Irish Rail. The partial first phase will take two years to link Ennis, Co Clare, and Athenry.

It will involve renewing 58 kilometres of track, installing points and crossings, and providing single 90-metre platforms at Gort, Ardrahan and Craughwell.

The second phase between Athenry and Tuam will be completed by 2011 under the Government's Transport 21 plan, but it will be 2014 before a live link is established with Mayo at Claremorris.

Under phase one some seven services will run daily each way between Limerick and Galway, with five stations at Gort, Ardrahan, Craughwell, Sixmilebridge (on the Ennis-Limerick line) and Oranmore (on the Athenry-Galway line).

The Minister said that phased implementation of the corridor was based on recommendations made by the expert working group chaired by Pat McCann.

"The heaviest demand for services is currently on the Ennis-Athenry-Tuam sections of the corridor, so these sections will be developed first," Mr Cullen said.

"In the meantime, it is expected that Galway and Mayo county councils will develop their land-use strategies, in order to develop the critical mass necessary to support completion within the Transport 21 timeframe," he said.

"This is a Government that believes in public transport," Mr Cullen said.

"We're investing all over the country, many other areas that we'd like to be doing more in and we'll have to look at that beyond Transport 21," he said.

Fine Gael councillor Madeleine Taylor-Quinn said she welcomed funding approval for the first phase, but called on the Minister to expedite the feasibility study for the spur line to Shannon.

"This would allow the region to "maximise on the benefits of the international airport" at Shannon, she said.

The West on Track campaign's spokesman, Colman Ó Raghallaigh, said that the campaign was delighted that the "first piece of phase one" has been announced, and it looked forward to the rest of this phase being implemented sequentially.

Western Development Commission chief executive Gillian Buckley also welcomed yesterday's announcement.

© The Irish Times

loyatemu

anyone know the populations of Craughwell, Ardrahan and Sixmilebridge?
would similar sized villages on other lines have any hope of getting their stations reopened?

D'Peoples Voice

loyatemu wrote:

anyone know the populations of Craughwell, Ardrahan and Sixmilebridge?
would similar sized villages on other lines have any hope of getting their stations reopened?

Sure Ardrahan is a bloody metropolis surrounded by smaller towns such as Galway, Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
You could fit the population of Navan into downtown Ardrahan.

westtip

loyatemu wrote:

anyone know the populations of Craughwell, Ardrahan and Sixmilebridge?
would similar sized villages on other lines have any hope of getting their stations reopened?

CSO website has details of the census http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/2006_prelim_table04.pdf

FYI: Craughwell 1351, Ardrahan, 479 SMB 2029

Sure twill be a great little railway, with stops at everyones house, should do Tuam - Galway in a couple of hours. but won't it be great, sure they might even bring back those lovely quaint steam trains and we can all wallow in nostalgia.

Navan by the way is a population of: 3199 althought the Navan rural area - its hinterland which would use a railway is 36 435. Meath as a county grew 21.4% in the last census to 162,000. My guess is the number of commuters needing a railway line in Meath is just an incey wincey bit more than east Galway, east mayo or south sligo.

doesn't this WRC just make sense to ye all.....

westtip

Navan Junction wrote:

Lorna Siggins , Irish Times, 27/09/2006

"This is a Government that believes in public transport," Mr Cullen said.


© The Irish Times

Laugh - I nearly swallowed my false teeth! Is this the reason why they (county Councils supported by the Government fiscal policies of tax breaks for developers) encourage the development of out of town retail parks - which a train won't go near - and where people have to work (ie get there everyday) as well as shop. Is this the reason why every town in the country is seeing a mushrooming of big sheds with office accomodation being built outside every town as "business parks" - again with not a train line near them and will probably never have a bus service, and which by the way with any slow doen in the economy seem to have been built for the wind to blow through. Mind you I suppose the economy can keep going if they just keep building these totally unnecessary sheds - I mean just how many value carpet warehouses do you need in a small provincial town.

Wakey wakey Mr e-voting Cullen. The kind of commercial developments we have these days - with jobs increasingly moving to out of town retail and commercial developments means errr well Mr. Cullen people are jumping in their cars to get to work.

Do they ever look at the society they have allowed to be created before they make such sweeping statements as the one above.

dowlingm

Sixmile yes, Oranmore yes, Gort yes, Craughwell... em... okay... Ardrahan... jesus wept...

The bus passengers whizzing by will enjoy it I suppose to see the train chugging along at 40mph-50mph and stopping at every hamlet that used to have a station in Victorian times.

Navan Junction

westtip wrote:

Navan by the way is a population of: 3199 althought the Navan rural area - its hinterland which would use a railway is 36 435.

Navan town is defined as an area about the size of Templebar.. The boundaries haven't been redrawn in decades.. Which is why none of the voters in Johnstown and most of the other new estates in Navan don't have votes in the town council elections..

Tells you the state of organisation up here

westtip

Navan Junction wrote:

Navan town is defined as an area about the size of Templebar.. The boundaries haven't been redrawn in decades.. Which is why none of the voters in Johnstown and most of the other new estates in Navan don't have votes in the town council elections..

Tells you the state of organisation up here

Yes, NJ, I did wonder about those basic figures from the CSO having crawled though Navan on several occasions doing the cross country drive on the N51 to Drogheda which I have reason to go on occassion. the figure of just over 3000 does seem a tad on the conservative side. With the immediate townlands bordering the official town border but now obviously part of the town because they are full of housing estates, what would you put the population of Navan urban area at? - In other words what townland disctricts from the official CSO figure for the town woudl you throw into the pot. It would just be interesting to compare - say with Craughwell.

loyatemu

the final Census will have a proper figure for Navan in it, preliminary report just lists electoral districts.

2002 census gave:
Navan Town - 3406
Environs of Navan - 16011