Western Rail Corridor

ishmael whale

I was reading a paper Frank Dawson on the West on Track website here http://www.westontrack.com/news137.doc when I felt distinctly chuffed by this

How often have we heard the remark that if it were not for all the subsidies and social welfare cheques the West would sink like a stone in the Atlantic never to be heard of again but in tales of Fionn Mac Umhaill.

Of course, we don’t hear that very often. We hardly hear it at all. In fact, apart from me posting here, has anyone drawn public attention to the CSO data that illustrates the plain fact that Dublin and the Mid East region pays the lion’s share of net taxes on households while, for example, Mayo is a net recipient of state income support? And that the West has faster commuting times, small class sizes and high third level participation rates by national standards which suggests they get a very fair shake from the country, despite the hype about their alleged 'neglect'?

So, if you’re reading Frank, I’m delighted that my contributions have weighed heavily enough on you for you to feel it necessary to address them in your submission to the Oireachtas. However, I’d be more impressed if you simply acknowledged that the West does damn well out of state investment and starting working from there.

Like much WOT material, the paper is high on reality avoidance. For example

My point is that the demand on the Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon and Galway corridor is almost equal to the combined demand on the Sligo Mayo Roscommon and Galway to Dublin corridors.

Presumably his measure of population on the Galway to Dublin corridor is an attempt to avoid noticing that traffic on the route benefits from the simple fact that Dublin is at one end and Galway is at another. Of such evasion is the West On Track case made. Not for nothing are they known as West On Drugs.

There also an attempt to rewrite the McCann report which, sensibly from a WOT perspective, simply didn’t comment on what proposed benefits might come from the WRC because, ahem, there aren’t actually any. The suggestion in this paper seems to be that a McCann committee subgroup said WRC could expect 1.4m journeys per year. By comparision (in figures cited by the WDC) Dublin Galway saw 1 million passengers in 2001. This calm suggestion that potential traffic between Sligo and Galway will be greater than Dublin Galway, and twice Dublin Limerick, is simply ludicrous. http://www.wdc.ie/publications_submissions/railstudy.pdf

He also repeats the usual misrepresentation of the Ennis Limerick service. Usage of the Ennis Limerick service has been mediocre. What makes the service work is the enhanced Dublin Ennis connectivity. But, of course, that simple reality coupled with the lack of use of the Limerick Waterford service is simply ignored because of the obvious relevance of this practical experience to the case for forgetting about the WRC. If Limerick Ennis is really just Ennis Dublin, then where’s the need to give Ennis a second connection to Dublin via Galway?

On the final McCann conclusion, he says

McCann conceded that re-opening Claremorris to Sligo would be very difficult to justify except on the grounds of balanced regional development.
That’s sounds to me like our national policy towards balanced regional development is optional.

No, just that balanced regional development is not helped by backing every demand for a white elephant. If Western Development campaigners put more effort into reflecting on what might actually be useful, rather than dreaming up tortuous arguments defending any old project so long as it has ‘Western’ in it, the country would be all the richer.