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New cycle track Mullingar to Athlone

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  • 13-10-2014 8:05pm
    #1
    pm.
    Registered Users Posts: 2,140 ✭✭✭


    Hi just to let you know the county council are working on the old railway line from Mullingar to Athlone and transforming it into a cycle lane. I think its around 30kms each way some lovely scenery aswell


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    #2
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    5 years after I suggested it...


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    #3
    Salmon
    Registered Users Posts: 680 ✭✭✭Salmon


    pm. wrote: »
    Hi just to let you know the county council are working on the old railway line from Mullingar to Athlone and transforming it into a cycle lane. I think its around 30kms each way some lovely scenery aswell

    Just a couple of pics of the work thats ongoing for anyone thats interested!


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    #4
    TheBody
    Registered Users Posts: 5,619 ✭✭✭TheBody


    Excellent news! Have they much of it done? Anyone know when it will be finished?


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    #5
    I said
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,855 ✭✭✭I said


    TheBody wrote: »
    Excellent news! Have they much of it done? Anyone know when it will be finished?
    Working at Castletown geogeohan


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    #6
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    great, a line that should have never been closed in the first place and should have been reopened instead of the western fail rail handed over to the peddlers never to be got back. shame on the council

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #7
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    Might bring some business to villages along the route.
    I can see many a pint being downed in CTG and elsewhere by thirsty cyclists


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    #8
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    end of the road wrote: »
    great, a line that should have never been closed in the first place and should have been reopened instead of the western fail rail handed over to the peddlers never to be got back. shame on the council

    rail is a dying mode of transport in Ireland. except on the main routes.
    with the motorway network it is not really needed


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    #9
    metrovick001
    Registered Users Posts: 420 ✭✭metrovick001


    Only because its not be run correctly.
    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    rail is a dying mode of transport in Ireland. except on the main routes.
    with the motorway network it is not really needed


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    #10
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    rail is a dying mode of transport in Ireland. except on the main routes.

    yeah, i'm sure it is . as someone who uses rail i can tell you that its not a dying method of transport. apart from the main routes everything else surviving is being ran down deliberately. athlone mullingar is a strategic link between both the dublin maynooth/sligo and dublin kildare portarlington athlone lines and whatever happens it should be made to be easily reopenable.
    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    with the motorway network it is not really needed

    of course it is . how isn't it needed. if it wasn't needed it would have gone years ago. thankfully so far the realization that it is needed still prevails. not everyone wishes to use the motor way, if they did they would do so

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #11
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    metrovick001 wrote: »
    Only because its not be run correctly.
    that, and the fact its not a dying method at all. its just stuff pumped out by the greenway lot and the road transport lot who have the notion in their minds.

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #12
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    who would use the railway line if it was reopened? realistically?
    Most people have cars nowadays. even students in college.

    a railway line between two major cities in Limerick and Galway was reopened and it barely gets used.


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    #13
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    who would use the railway line if it was reopened? realistically?

    well we won't know now will we, but i think it would get rather a lot of use if it had been reopened, during the good times would have been the right time.
    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    Most people have cars nowadays. even students in college.

    and? means nothing. offer them an alternative that works properly and you never know they might just use it. everyone has a car yet many use public transport, can you believe that.
    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    a railway line between two major cities in Limerick and Galway was reopened and it barely gets used.

    and? the failure of that line is not a reason against reopenings, considering the line winds around the place and is as slow as a funeral its not surprising it has little usership. built on a good alinement with good speeds it would have got the traffic as the market is there for a link between galway and limerick. but with the current line that may as well go around by southern yemen, its not surprising nobody takes it up.

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #14
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    end of the road wrote: »
    well we won't know now will we, but i think it would get rather a lot of use if it had been reopened, during the good times would have been the right time.



    and? means nothing. offer them an alternative that works properly and you never know they might just use it. everyone has a car yet many use public transport, can you believe that.



    and? the failure of that line is not a reason against reopenings, considering the line winds around the place and is as slow as a funeral its not surprising it has little usership. built on a good alinement with good speeds it would have got the traffic as the market is there for a link between galway and limerick. but with the current line that may as well go around by southern yemen, its not surprising nobody takes it up.

    I think you need to move to southern yemen.
    In a country as small as Ireland, its quicker and cheaper to drive.

    No point in spending €100 million upgrading the line in the hope someone might use it to travel between two regional towns.


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    #15
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    In a country as small as Ireland, its quicker and cheaper to drive.

    is it? funnily enough, its not in my experience. it might be in some peoples cases, but thats just down to their situation. still means nothing, and is no reason against rail investment.
    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    No point in spending €100 million upgrading the line in the hope someone might use it to travel between two regional towns.

    which line. galway and limerick are cities, end of, doesn't matter about european contexts. the current line isn't being upgraded. read my post again, i said new line in the first place. frankly it wouldn't cost 100000000 to upgrade the athlone mullingar line as its rather short, it would be money well spent. anyway i'm off now, by

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #16
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    end of the road wrote: »
    is it? funnily enough, its not in my experience. it might be in some peoples cases, but thats just down to their situation. still means nothing, and is no reason against rail investment.



    which line. galway and limerick are cities, end of, doesn't matter about european contexts. the current line isn't being upgraded. read my post again, i said new line in the first place. frankly it wouldn't cost 100000000 to upgrade the athlone mullingar line as its rather short, it would be money well spent. anyway i'm off now, by

    that's the figure that was quoted before.
    feel free to come back and argue your points.

    the cycleway should sustain more jobs along the route than the trains ever would


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    #17
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    that's the figure that was quoted before.
    feel free to come back and argue your points.

    the cycleway should sustain more jobs along the route than the trains ever would
    doubt it, nothing to get excited about along that line. mayo and kerry are the places for cycling tourism and cycling and general

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #18
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    end of the road wrote: »
    doubt it, nothing to get excited about along that line. mayo and kerry are the places for cycling tourism and cycling and general

    and that should end your interest in this thread.
    off to Yemen, Mayo or Kerry with ya


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    #19
    Judgement Day
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    I still have a major difficulty with this concept of thousands of people descending on every former railway line in the country to cycle along them. It used to be every large town had to have a grotto, hospital, bypass, airport and now they all have to have a cycleway too. The panacea for all Ireland's problems.

    The Mullingar/Athlone was not just a link between Mullingar and Athlone, it was the main route to Galway. Just as the line from Clonsilla to Navan M3 Parkway is a monument to that waster Noel Dempsey, the cycleway from Mullingar to Athlone will be Leo Varadkar's legacy to the people of the Midlands. Enjoy it! :rolleyes:


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    #20
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    stop the peddlers, give us back our railways. stop the peddlers, give us back our railways. stop the peddlers, give us back our railways. stop the peddlers, give us back our railways. what do we want, railways free from the peddlers, when do we want it, now.

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #21
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    Have you ever been abroad?

    In New Zealand so many of the former railways have been turned into cycleways. They generate far more tourist spend along the route of the cycleway - accommodation, shops, cafes.

    Take off the railway blinkers.
    The rail line is closed, see the potential in this new venture


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    #22
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    nice_guy80 wrote: »
    Have you ever been abroad?

    In New Zealand so many of the former railways have been turned into cycleways. They generate far more tourist spend along the route of the cycleway - accommodation, shops, cafes.

    Take off the railway blinkers.
    The rail line is closed, see the potential in this new venture
    what potential. for the cyclists kerry and mayo are the places to see. not along the athlone mullingar line, there is nothing of sceenic interest along there. and i'd imagine in New Zealand if they want the cycle ways back for a railway they get it back, unlike britain where the peddler terrorists known as sustrins have to much power and stop progress. see the BRT project in NI. we'l probably end up the same. yes i've been abroad many times.

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #23
    athlonelad
    Registered Users Posts: 443 ✭✭athlonelad


    end of the road wrote: »
    yes i've been abroad many times.

    Did you go by train?


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    #24
    pawrick
    Registered Users Posts: 1,722 ✭✭✭pawrick


    If the line was reopened I would use it to get to Dublin rather than arrive in Heuston and have to get a luas or bus the rest of the way I'd be getting in to Connolly. Also looking at the map it appears to be a more direct route than going south to Portarlington. This is all dependent on having a direct Dublin service. If the line ceased at Mullingar and you had to wait for connections any benefit would be wasted and I doubt it would be economical to keep it going.

    I've nothing against the cycle route either as i can't see any gov. giving the money to reopen the line.


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    #25
    SilverScreen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,113 ✭✭✭SilverScreen


    pawrick wrote: »
    If the line was reopened I would use it to get to Dublin rather than arrive in Heuston and have to get a luas or bus the rest of the way I'd be getting in to Connolly. Also looking at the map it appears to be a more direct route than going south to Portarlington. This is all dependent on having a direct Dublin service. If the line ceased at Mullingar and you had to wait for connections any benefit would be wasted and I doubt it would be economical to keep it going.

    I've nothing against the cycle route either as i can't see any gov. giving the money to reopen the line.
    I doubt that it would be much quicker. Connolly Station in Dublin gets a lot more traffic than Heuston and the line is on the brink of capacity between Maynooth and Connolly. Not to mention the line from Mullingar to Connolly being slow and twisty in places. Even though the route through Portarlington is less direct it has the advantage of being double track from Portarlington to Hazelhatch and then quadruple track from Hazelhatch to Park West.


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    #26
    Fred Swanson
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,730 ✭✭✭✭Fred Swanson


    This post has been deleted.


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    #27
    Zubeneschamali
    Registered Users Posts: 16,686 ✭✭✭✭Zubeneschamali


    Talk of "re-opening" the Athlone-Mullingar line is misleading: they'd have to rip up the track and relay it from scratch, with new signalling and road crossings.

    The only thing you'd get free from the old line is the route and a few dilapidated station buildings.


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    #28
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 28,989 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    Zubeneschamali wrote: »
    Talk of "re-opening" the Athlone-Mullingar line is misleading: they'd have to rip up the track and relay it from scratch, with new signalling and road crossings.

    The only thing you'd get free from the old line is the route and a few dilapidated station buildings.
    thats usually what happens when a line is reopened, so nothing new or ground breaking would be happening here if athlone mullingar was to reopen

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #29
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    end of the road wrote: »
    what potential. for the cyclists kerry and mayo are the places to see. not along the athlone mullingar line, there is nothing of sceenic interest along there. and i'd imagine in New Zealand if they want the cycle ways back for a railway they get it back, unlike britain where the peddler terrorists known as sustrins have to much power and stop progress. see the BRT project in NI. we'l probably end up the same. yes i've been abroad many times.

    the tracks in NZ were closed around the same time as the railway lines in Ireland

    they are making good use of the empty routes.
    many of the cycle tracks are on the Canterbury plain on the south island


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    #30
    DeeJunFan
    Registered Users Posts: 110 ✭✭DeeJunFan


    SilverScreen wrote: »
    I doubt that it would be much quicker. Connolly Station in Dublin gets a lot more traffic than Heuston and the line is on the brink of capacity between Maynooth and Connolly. Not to mention the line from Mullingar to Connolly being slow and twisty in places. Even though the route through Portarlington is less direct it has the advantage of being double track from Portarlington to Hazelhatch and then quadruple track from Hazelhatch to Park West.

    Quadruple track???

    Mullingar to Maynooth is only single track. Its a joke if there is any delay on the sligo to connolly train you have to sit in Maynooth for god knows how long.


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    #31
    Zubeneschamali
    Registered Users Posts: 16,686 ✭✭✭✭Zubeneschamali


    DeeJunFan wrote: »
    Mullingar to Maynooth is only single track. Its a joke

    It was single tracked in the 1920s, I think. You can see on the 1901ish OS map that even the Athlone-Mullingar line was double track back then.


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