Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)

sonnyblack

westtip wrote: »

Well the extensive work by European Transport planners and putting together TEN-T Transport policy happened to agree with you on this matter as TEN-T does include both the N17 and N18 on this matter. Pity Canney can't focus his efforts on has been approved by European TEN-T policy he might actually be able to pull that one off, instead this independent TD propping up a minority government on an off shore island of Europe believes he has the influence to change European Transport planning legislation! The Germans will have a good laugh at the wee Wesht of Ireland man.

This was also in the Programme for Government 2016

'C) TEN-T Transport Funding In the first three months the new Government will apply to the European Union for the revision of the TEN-T CORE Network, including applying for the reinstatement of the crossborder Western Arc. '

What's the western arc I wonder.

savagethegoat

Sligo to Enniskillen I imagine

eastwest

sonnyblack wrote: »

This was also in the Programme for Government 2016

'C) TEN-T Transport Funding In the first three months the new Government will apply to the European Union for the revision of the TEN-T CORE Network, including applying for the reinstatement of the crossborder Western Arc. '

What's the western arc I wonder.

It's the Sinn Fein policy of connecting the refugees who came to Shannon in the seventies with their relations in Derry.
How did that get into a FG programme?

savagethegoat

really? is not a a link already...via Dublin?

westtip

sonnyblack wrote: »

This was also in the Programme for Government 2016

'C) TEN-T Transport Funding In the first three months the new Government will apply to the European Union for the revision of the TEN-T CORE Network, including applying for the reinstatement of the crossborder Western Arc. '

What's the western arc I wonder.

TEN-T is writ i tablets of Stone, it would need a complete change of a policy approved by the EU parliament back in November 2013, West on Track have been licking their wounds since then. This weak government we have now will not be able to change TEN-T policy. However it does mean the main objective of Sean Canney's will be achieved. to stop tourism jobs being created at all costs with the greenway.

westtip

information sent to West of ireland cllrs about TEN-T this was sent to all cllrs in Galway Roscommong Mayo and sligo in December 2013 it dispels the myth that the West of Ireland was excluded from TEN-T

westtip

Do you know what is so funny, we are all actually debating this business about the Western Rail corridor as if it is going to happen.

Lets think of this as a horse race:

First Fence: the scope of a study has to be agreed
2nd fence: An independent consulting company has to be appointed and approved for its independence (the form book of the McCann report is a non runner).
3rd fence: in order for the WRC to commence the consultant has to a "ringer" for west on track, (no more McCanns out there)
4th fence it has to deliver a favourable report
5th fence European TEN T has to be changed
6th fence the money has to be available
7th fence this has to get past the minister for public expenditure (now pascal donohoe - remember him!)
8th fence it has to get past cabinet
9th fence etc etc etc.

Look it ain't going to happen! And if it does you simply have to take your hats off to them for wasting more public money.

eastwest

savagethegoat wrote: »

really? is not a a link already...via Dublin?

They don't want to go til Daublin, it's hard to change trains when yer carrying yer flegs an that.

savagethegoat

s'OK they can o thru the PPT soon....

marno21

The TEN-T core network in Ireland just includes Belfast-Dublin-Cork.

The EU will not be including Sligo-Enniskillen in that no matter what independent TD is holding the government to ransom.

Muckyboots

Meanwhile - http://galwaybayfm.ie/td-secures-major-galway-commitments-programme-government

"Secures funding".

serfboard

Muckyboots wrote: »

Meanwhile - http://galwaybayfm.ie/td-secures-major-galway-commitments-programme-government

"Secures funding".

Good man, Michael Fitzmaurice. More funding for this, more funding for that, sure there's just buckets of cash out there that nobody knew what to do with until you came along with your suggestions.

My previous rant aside, I'd say that the Programme for Government has now been filed by the Department of Finance - in their rubbish bin.

BoatMad

My previous rant aside, I'd say that the Programme for Government has now been filed by the Department of Finance - in their rubbish bin.

and a match is being thrown in by Noonan

eastwest

It's a week now since Sean Canney secured a commitment to yet another report on the wrc. Has anyone seen any detail on this, are they just going to rehash all the existing reports, or is it a new study? what is it going to cost, and who is it envisaged will do it? Is this a job for a small one-person consultancy, or a major corporation who might need a million quid of taxpayer euro to even look at it?
The whole thing is far too vague and woolly for my liking, although I can understand that maybe Deputy Canney prefers it that way. Once he gets into the junior ministry though, I'm sure he will be under a lot more public scrutiny about spending our taxes on nonsense. Once the focus is on the detail, he may find it hard to give answers; this stroke may well bite him back before it's over.

marno21

eastwest wrote: »

It's a week now since Sean Canney secured a commitment to yet another report on the wrc. Has anyone seen any detail on this, are they just going to rehash all the existing reports, or is it a new study? what is it going to cost, and who is it envisaged will do it? Is this a job for a small one-person consultancy, or a major corporation who might need a million quid of taxpayer euro to even look at it?
The whole thing is far too vague and woolly for my liking, although I can understand that maybe Deputy Canney prefers it that way. Once he gets into the junior ministry though, I'm sure he will be under a lot more public scrutiny about spending our taxes on nonsense. Once the focus is on the detail, he may find it hard to give answers; this stroke may well bite him back before it's over.

If these things were done that fast we'd be living in a far more advanced society than we do.

eastwest

True, but if Canney has asked for this study, he must have proposed a concept that was accepted. Surely no government would agree to a study costing several million for instance?
I would have expected that if any kind of good governance applied, there was some indication of the scope of this study and an indicative cost. Canney must have tabled something a bit more substantial than 'a study', surely? I'd love to know what he actually proposed.

BoatMad

there is serious speculation that Foynes will reopen its rail link and Ballina is so successful with rail freight that extra sidings had to be reconnected in Claremorris to store overflows

There may be a " reasonable " case for WRC to claremorris . any further will never happen

eastwest

BoatMad wrote: »

there is serious speculation that Foynes will reopen its rail link and Ballina is so successful with rail freight that extra sidings had to be reconnected in Claremorris to store overflows

There may be a " reasonable " case for WRC to claremorris . any further will never happen

As I understand it, the WDC report on rail freight showed just a tiny demand, not enough to justify a second line to Claremorris.
Unless they are going to close one line in order to build another one? Stranger things have happened, but surely not nowadays in the light of the public scrutiny that these things attract now?

marno21

Any future rail link to Foynes should be rebuilt as a high speed coastal alignment, not the windy mess that's there at present.

tabbey

marno21 wrote: »

Any future rail link to Foynes should be rebuilt as a high speed coastal alignment, not the windy mess that's there at present.

Limerick to Foynes has one of the fastest alignments in the country, but if it was to reopen, and I am always hopeful,
it will serve freight trains running at 25 mph, like the Navan branch.

serfboard

eastwest wrote: »

True, but if Canney has asked for this study, he must have proposed a concept that was accepted. Surely no government would agree to a study costing several million for instance?
I would have expected that if any kind of good governance applied, there was some indication of the scope of this study and an indicative cost. Canney must have tabled something a bit more substantial than 'a study', surely? I'd love to know what he actually proposed.

God bless your naivety. I'd say Canney couldn't care less if it was done by an unpaid TY student - so long as "a study" was "being done".

westtip

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/flooded-railway-track-to-reopen-despite-locals-concerns-1.2648767

Ah well lets spend some more money on a report into railway that is closed half the year due to flooding!

westtip

BoatMad wrote: »

there is serious speculation that Foynes will reopen its rail link and Ballina is so successful with rail freight that extra sidings had to be reconnected in Claremorris to store overflows

There may be a " reasonable " case for WRC to claremorris . any further will never happen

There is also a reasonable case to double track Athlone- Galway, or to build more social housing in Galway, Tuam, Ballindine and Claremorris, to name a few.

A "reasonable" case will not win over the mandarins in Europe to change TEN-T policy.

There is no case for the railway from Athenry to Claremorris. simple as, end of story, period, over and out. At what stage will this message sink in?

Even Enda admitted this to back in December 2014 Remember this......
Go listen again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfv0EGFjxK0

what_traffic

Looking at this video that Iarnród Eireann have posted on twitter it will not take much for it to be flooded again come Winter 2016 unless we get a very dry summer
https://twitter.com/IrishRail/status/732574069384708097

It took until May for the floods to recede!! :eek:
Surely it would have made sense to have rerouted or built it up when the line was reconstructed.

loyatemu

Deleted User wrote: »

It took until May for the floods to recede!! :eek:
Surely it would have made sense to have rerouted or built it up when the line was reconstructed.

isn't this bit between Limerick and Ennis, which was already open and operational before the WRC "rebuild"

eastwest

westtip wrote: »

There is also a reasonable case to double track Athlone- Galway, or to build more social housing in Galway, Tuam, Ballindine and Claremorris, to name a few.

A "reasonable" case will not win over the mandarins in Europe to change TEN-T policy.

There is no case for the railway from Athenry to Claremorris. simple as, end of story, period, over and out. At what stage will this message sink in?

Even Enda admitted this to back in December 2014 Remember this......
Go listen again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfv0EGFjxK0

You miss the point; this has nothing to do with a railway.
Yes, there is a small handful of anoraks who believe that the trains 'haven't gone away, you know', but the politics that opposes the tourism and jobs lobby has nothing to do with that. The promise to go up to Dublin and show those Dublin four types that we are entitled to the same services as them is a very popular message that is a proven vote-getter. It gets people elected, something that is understood by people like Sean Canney. These guys are not stupid, they have built careers at local level by appealing to the 'them and us' sentiment that shows Dublin as the enemy of rural Ireland, and persuades voters that because there is a DART in Donnybrook there should be a train in Tuam.
It's not about logic, or facts; if it was, there would be thousands of tourists enjoying holidays on two wheels in Kiltimagh and Collooney. It's about understanding your electorate and knowing which buttons to push.

mayo.mick

BoatMad wrote: »

there is serious speculation that Foynes will reopen its rail link and Ballina is so successful with rail freight that extra sidings had to be reconnected in Claremorris to store overflows

There may be a " reasonable " case for WRC to claremorris . any further will never happen

BoatMad

It's not about logic, or facts; if it was, there would be thousands of tourists enjoying holidays on two wheels in Kiltimagh and Collooney. It's about understanding your electorate and knowing which buttons to push.

this being true of all politics of course

Consonata

Is there a case to be made for a Sligo-Galway-Limerick line for freight and tourism, advertise it as the "Wild Atlantic railway" I don't know. And put the green way alongside