Government to launch cross-border transport scheme

Judgement Day

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/govt-to-launch-cross-border-transport-scheme-448441.html

Yes, I'm sure the heading made you look at this earth shattering news item too. I thought it might be an announcement on rebuilding the GNR rail link from Dundalk to Derry or something of major significance but no just another Noel Dempsey PR opportunity.
Does anybody else think that the rebuilding of the Clonsilla/Dunboyne line shows what can be done using old rail alignments, and what could be done to open up the North West using the old routes? There are two alternative routes that could be considered - (off the Sligo line) Inny Junction/Cavan/Clones/Enniskillen/Omagh/Strabane/Derry; (off the Belfast line) Dundalk/Clones/Enniskillen/Omagh/Strabane/Derry. I'm no McGuckian but as I think railways are vital to the 'whole' islands long term well being the whole North West should not be cut-off from the rail system. While such an undertaking would be enormously expensive it could be undertaken in stages and would probably qualify for all sorts of EU funding. With the major road building schemes nearing completion surely now is the ideal time for thought to be given to a change of direction for future major infrastructural projects?

Zoney

I don't think there's much scope for it as things stand, but on the other hand I do believe there should be a deliberate policy of fostering growth in Sligo as a regional hub. As such, maybe eventually further rail connections would be warranted. However, it would also likely need serious planning in NI re: Derry as well to improve the whole northwest region. I think there's little scope for improving the border counties but for more opportunities for locals in Derry and Sligo (thus meaning there's more money in local towns too and so some small measure of service commerce in those towns as well).

Anyway, as things stand, there are many many more important priorities, even just in the region of transport. Getting a better rail link between Derry and Belfast would be more important even for Donegal (again, it would benefit from any boost to Derry) but in fact even just better road links are needed (and first, given the status quo reliance on road transport).

schemingbohemia

Judgement Day wrote: »

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/govt-to-launch-cross-border-transport-scheme-448441.html

Yes, I'm sure the heading made you look at this earth shattering news item too. I thought it might be an announcement on rebuilding the GNR rail link from Dundalk to Derry or something of major significance but no just another Noel Dempsey PR opportunity.
Does anybody else think that the rebuilding of the Clonsilla/Dunboyne line shows what can be done using old rail alignments, and what could be done to open up the North West using the old routes? There are two alternative routes that could be considered - (off the Sligo line) Inny Junction/Cavan/Clones/Enniskillen/Omagh/Strabane/Derry; (off the Belfast line) Dundalk/Clones/Enniskillen/Omagh/Strabane/Derry. I'm no McGuckian but as I think railways are vital to the 'whole' islands long term well being the whole North West should not be cut-off from the rail system. While such an undertaking would be enormously expensive it could be undertaken in stages and would probably qualify for all sorts of EU funding. With the major road building schemes nearing completion surely now is the ideal time for thought to be given to a change of direction for future major infrastructural projects?

Are you sure you're no McGuckian? Sounding very like him there. Both routes you've mentioned go through sparsely populated areas and would put the cost of the WRC into the halfpenny place.

dermo88

To a "tidy" mind, that "hole" in the Northwest made in 1957 and 1965 looks rather messy. It would be nice to "fill it in" a bit with a railway, just to get towns such as Omagh, Strabane, Enniskillen connected again.

But....nice does not equate to practical. The alignments are under motorways and roads, which are faster. The old alignments were closed because they were too slow to compete with road. Operational costs were also high, even though the annual deficit on operations was barely 14,000 Pounds in 1957 (the cost of 5 houses back then).

If anything is ever going to be done, it will need to be done in partnership with Northern Ireland. The only desirable routes so to speak, are those that went from Portadown to Derry via Omagh and Strabane, and Portadown to Armagh, Monaghan and Enniskillen.

Dundalk to Clones was a very slow rural line when it was open. Say it was open today, a modern DMU would barely manage 80 kph on it.

Portadown to Derry, from what I was told was in a very poor state when it closed in 1965, and it carried very few passengers in the period between 1957 and 1965.

Northern Ireland was also more economically affluent, so car ownership was much more widespread than in the Republic of Ireland. The two regimes, disliked each other, and had different transport policies/priorities. A reunification railway is a dream, but thats all it is. A dream.

When Hospitals, Schools, Law enforcement, Roads and dodgy banks want funding, regional railways are far down the list in the pecking order.

Rodfromabroad

Right ideas here from people for new rail links to the northwest (yes, and what a underwhelming news announcement!). I have long thought that Mullingar-Inny Junction-Cavan-Clones-Monaghan-Armagh-Portadown-Belfast, would be a very worthwhile study for a rebuilt/reopened rail route, next to, say, a reopened Derry line, to Belfast, via Omagh (possibility of a direct Galway to Belfast service).

Another reasonable reopening could be a Belfast-Sligo link, from Clones to Enniskillen, and on to Sligo via Manor Hamilton.

Whatever, governments have to attach more priority to reattaching so much of the border territory and the northwest to the railway map of Ireland again, and undoing so much of the short-sighted rail line abandonment of the 60s - which was particularly hard on these areas, of course.

ardmacha

A bit like the WRC, the first priority should not be reopening lightly used rail lines but establishing a good bus service. If you plot a local bus route map of Ireland then the border can be clearly seen and the pattern of routes often has a long lost historical basis. It should be easier to travel from Monaghan to Fermanagh or commute by public transport from South Armagh to Dundalk, but present public policy is not good in relation to bus services on either side of the border, but it is even worse when the services join.

Sponge Bob

This all sounds rather McGuckianesque

All Dempsey is doing is arranging for parking and speeding fines to be collected on a cross border basis.

Not a single body is to be moved anywhere on Public Transport as a direct result of this particular initiative.

Everybody take a pill and purge their bodies of these foul McGuckian Vapours.

Hence!!!

Zoney

Spongebob: I think people were just responding to the OP and subsequent posts rather than the "news".