Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)

http://www.con-telegraph.ie/news/roundup/articles/2017/03/15/4136679-kiltimagh-greenway-petition-opened/

Theyre not against the velorail but yet they serve notice on mayo coco questioning the planning permission and the knotweed?! Id like to know if it really was the group that served notice or just one certain vocal individual

loyatemu wrote: »

the Velorail idea is crazy - what does it offer that a Greenway would not and more?

Profit for the velorail company, set up with taxpayer funds?

loyatemu wrote: »

the Velorail idea is crazy - what does it offer that a Greenway would not and more?

A novelty - something not available elsewhere in the British Isles?

Pete2k wrote: »

http://www.con-telegraph.ie/news/roundup/articles/2017/03/15/4136679-kiltimagh-greenway-petition-opened/

Theyre not against the velorail but yet they serve notice on mayo coco questioning the planning permission and the knotweed?! Id like to know if it really was the group that served notice or just one certain vocal individual

I presume that a planning application has been made, or what's the story?

Del.Monte wrote: »

A novelty - something not available elsewhere in the British Isles?

Like Guinness Light...

Pete2k wrote: »

http://www.con-telegraph.ie/news/roundup/articles/2017/03/15/4136679-kiltimagh-greenway-petition-opened/

Theyre not against the velorail but yet they serve notice on mayo coco questioning the planning permission and the knotweed?! Id like to know if it really was the group that served notice or just one certain vocal individual

One person served the notice it was me, your "vocal individual" the notice was posted up on facebook and got many "likes", I also set up the petition on change.org but didn't force 600 people to sign it, it's called leadership. Nor have I forced 1700 people to sign the more general petition asking for a greenway from Athenry to Sligo on the closed route.

I also drove this idea for years in Sligo,as a vocal individual and eventually a group of people contacted me and formed the Sligo Greenway Co-op, the Co-op is now doing very nicely with over 500 members who have paid €10 each to be members, that group is now driving the greenway on the section from Collooney to Charlestown. Good luck to them I am happy to see the nitty gritty work they are now doing, my campaigning was the catalyst that got them going; as I said its called leadership.

People in Mayo have contacted me to get ideas on how they can form a similar group in Mayo, whilst I have been one of the most vociferous voices on the greenway campaign I am pleased to say many local people in towns like Kiltimagh, Charlestown, Foxford and Swinford have picked up the mantle and are making the noise they now know they can to challenge the decisions made in places like County Mayo planning department which used incorrect information to stop the greenway from being written into the county plan as they have their heads so far up the *****es of West on Track they simply will not accept the truth of the matter.

About five years ago people in Tuam contacted me about the sligo mayo greenway campaign, they had picked up on what was happening in Sligo and Mayo. Now in part thanks to me but also due to similar lateral thinking happening in tandem in Tuam there is a massive support for the greenway in both Athenry and Tuam.

So to answer your point was it the group who served notice or one certain vocal individual, the answer is the latter, but I did so in the knowledge that many many people now support this idea in Mayo, but the public servants in Mayo county council are doing everything they can not to serve the public on this matter. Mayo county council effectively ignored 284 submissions asking for greenway on the county plan, choosing to say a velo rail should go on the route, Mayo coco planning department are being challenged as they are misleading the public and the chamber using false information about this closed railway. They have threatened to take me to court over the matter sending me threatening solicitors letters as I have challenged the way they have mislead both the public and the council using false information.

Interesting times ahead, I personally will not let go of this issue, If anyone from Mayo coco is reading this. Bring it on sunshines.

westtip wrote: »

Pete2k wrote: »

http://www.con-telegraph.ie/news/roundup/articles/2017/03/15/4136679-kiltimagh-greenway-petition-opened/

Theyre not against the velorail but yet they serve notice on mayo coco questioning the planning permission and the knotweed?! Id like to know if it really was the group that served notice or just one certain vocal individual

One person served the notice it was me, your "vocal individual" the notice was posted up on facebook and got many "likes", I also set up the petition on change.org but didn't force 600 people to sign it, it's called leadership. Nor have I forced 1700 people to sign the more general petition asking for a greenway from Athenry to Sligo on the closed route.

I also drove this idea for years in Sligo,as a vocal individual and eventually a group of people contacted me and formed the Sligo Greenway Co-op, the Co-op is now doing very nicely with over 500 members who have paid €10 each to be members, that group is now driving the greenway on the section from Collooney to Charlestown. Good luck to them I am happy to see the nitty gritty work they are now doing, my campaigning was the catalyst that got them going; as I said its called leadership.

People in Mayo have contacted me to get ideas on how they can form a similar group in Mayo, whilst I have been one of the most vociferous voices on the greenway campaign I am pleased to say many local people in towns like Kiltimagh, Charlestown, Foxford and Swinford have picked up the mantle and are making the noise they now know they can to challenge the decisions made in places like County Mayo planning department which used incorrect information to stop the greenway from being written into the county plan as they have their heads so far up the *****es of West on Track they simply will not accept the truth of the matter.

About five years ago people in Tuam contacted me about the sligo mayo greenway campaign, they had picked up on what was happening in Sligo and Mayo. Now in part thanks to me but also due to similar lateral thinking happening in tandem in Tuam there is a massive support for the greenway in both Athenry and Tuam.

So to answer your point was it the group who served notice or one certain vocal individual, the answer is the latter, but I did so in the knowledge that many many people now support this idea in Mayo, but the public servants in Mayo county council are doing everything they can not to serve the public on this matter. Mayo county council effectively ignored 284 submissions asking for greenway on the county plan, choosing to say a velo rail should go on the route, Mayo coco planning department are being challenged as they are misleading the public and the chamber using false information about this closed railway. They have threatened to take me to court over the matter sending me threatening solicitors letters as I have challenged the way they have mislead both the public and the council using false information.

Interesting times ahead, I personally will not let go of this issue, If anyone from Mayo coco is reading this. Bring it on sunshines.

There seems to be some strange goings on in Mayo county council, judging by this and other related matters over the last few years. Using lawyers to try to silence opposition, but not having the b***s to follow through (or more likely, not having any case), binning hundreds of submissions for a greenway in favour of the velorail (which appears not to have even been submitted by anyone), all stink of an organisation that has lost the plot somewhat.
There seems (to this observer at least) to be a certain almost vitriolic flavour to their opposition to a greenway on the closed line, an attitude more usually associated with the pro-rail lobby than a local authority (which in theory should be supporting the citizens).
And it's not like they don't know that the railway is now effectively a myth. If they haven't been listening to the DOT, surely the fact that IR is willing to lease the line for an obscure project for a minimum of twelve years must tell them something?
Or, as many of now suspect, is the velorail simply a way of stopping the greenway and making it look like the track is being reinstated, to appease WOT (who appear to be embedded in the council to an unhealthy degree), and to make a certain Junior minister and WOT stalwart look good?
It's kinda pathetic, in the context of the supposed role of a local authority in serving the people.

westtip wrote: »

If Mayo county council had any gumption they would go down to Waterford to see the transformation the Waterford Greenway (AKA the Deise Greenway) is making down there. I could not believe the sheer volumes of people using this free to use leisure facility yesterday, Sunday March 26th. A blissfully warm spring day had bought out walkers, cyclists, rollerbladers, families, teenagers all creeds of mankind. It was a wonderful sight.

And Mayo coco backs a scheme - a velo rail, to be run by a private company, which will have zero appeal to local people and will exclude people from using the closed route as a leisure amenity, it is little short of a disgrace. They should go to Waterford or even their own backyard in Westport and give the people of East Mayo what they are clamouring for.

They're won't. When it comes to the whole leisure and tourism sector in mayo, policy appears to be effectively dictated by a tiny rail lobby group and vested interests that want to keep all investment in the westport/castlebar area. Places like Kiltimagh are considered a lost cause; the velorail money is all about stopping the greenway, they haven't even thought it through judging by the condition of the track.

Quackster wrote: »

Irish Rail recently transferred ownership of the Tralee-Fenit and Tralee-Abbeyfeale lines to Kerry Co Co for development as greenways and I've absolutely no doubt they'd do the same with this line if Mayo and Sligo Co Cos showed a similar level of enthusiasm for developing greenways.

I've no doubt that Irish Rail would happily handover the entire railway system for use as greenways if they thought that they could get away with it.

Sligo county plan finally recognizes a greenway can go on the closed railway. The revised county plan debated at Sligo county council meeting last Monday has changed the wording of the previous five year county plan that would only allow a greenway "alongside" the closed rusting railway.

This is a breakthrough as the "alongside" only wording was added into the last county plan (county plan 2011 - 2016) by anti greenway cllrs to stop the greenway from happening, It was pretty obvious to anyone that having the restriction "alongside" in the county plan was inserted by the anti-greenway cllrs five years ago to stop the greenway from happening. Thankfully due to incessant lobbying the anti-greenway councillors are now in the minority in Sligo. It has taken six years to move this forward, the line is still a rusting heap of scrap but finally we have the greenway written into a county plan as something that can happen. No doubt the railway lobby will still do its best to stop this from happening in Sligo but it is now the greenway campaigners turn to say enough is enough, let's get on with it.

The new county plan recognizes a greenway can either go "on or alongside the closed railway". Keeping the alongside phrase in the county was a compromise, but you have no idea how long it has taken to fight those who opposed putting the simple phrase "on the closed railway" into the county plan. As Irish Rail have stated the closed railway only has scrap value the way is now open to use the route as a greenway; lifting the closed tracks and using the trackbed as the base for a greenway will be the most cost effective option and has already been the recommendation of a report to the council last year. All the processes, such as feasibility study, submission for funding and actually building the greenway will take time. But after a five year hold up due to this small piece of wording now being turned over we can be confident the Sligo section of the Western Rail Trail will happen. Lets see it press ahead and well done Sligo coco.


https://www.oceanfm.ie/2017/03/30/sligo-councillors-keep-options-open-on-greenway-plans/

Quackster wrote: »

westtip wrote: »

Sligo county plan finally recognizes a greenway can go on the closed railway. The revised county plan debated at Sligo county council meeting last Monday has changed the wording of the previous five year county plan that would only allow a greenway "alongside" the closed rusting railway.

Fantastic news. This is the beginning of the end of any deluded notion in officialdom of reopening further sections of the WRC.

Hopefully SCC will, without delay, enter into negotiations with IR to take ownership of the line.

A small but significant step forward, not only towards building a greenway but also in ensuring that the alignment stays in public ownership.
The biggest threat to a future rail link on this route was never a greenway, it was loss to roads or sell-off or adverse possession. The closed railway will at all times stay in the hands of CIE Properties and be available for rail or other transport use. It's great that sligo county councillors have seen the sense of that.

eastwest wrote: »

That's the key; Ireland is too small to use rail freight for much of the freight we move by road already.
The cost of moving freight on and off rail not only delays its journey time, but costs money each time you handle it. The notion that you can shift any significant amount of existing freight to rail is delusional. In the area that is the subject of this thread, pretty much any of the existing material that can be handled by rail is being handled by rail, and it amounts to a mere couple of trainloads a day.
Even if by some miracle you managed to double that, it doesn't justify having two rail routes to service it; I hear no complaints from existing users about the existing service.
In addition, of course, despite the likelihood that some ferry routes from Rosslare will see extra traffic, the 'landbridge' route to mainland Europe is still cheaper and faster, even if charges apply.
There is also an argument for having extra European funding for freight operators having to transit through the UK, given the commitment to servicing the peripheral regions of the EU.
So, will Brexit cause the government to suddenly change direction and build a railway to carry two trains, or one long train a day? Not a chance.

i disagree. relying on road freight is hugely expensive over all compared to any costs of rail freight. there will be some flows currently on road that could be put on rail if the will was there. there would be little cost of moving freight on and off rail if everything is set up correctly and the journey time would not be much longer. the old handling methods employed by the railways at one stage are irrelevant as such methods would not be employed on modern rail freight services and can no longer be used as a reason for no rail freight. the notion that you can shift any significant amount of existing freight to rail is not delusional, but the reason it won't happen is government policy and no wish to go up against the road hauliers.

Del.Monte wrote: »

The reincarnation http://www.lartiguemonorail.com is one of the few railway preservation projects to have succeeded in the Republic, so perhaps another novelty project will too.

They were on shaky financial ground according to one article I read.

To be fair, North Kerry is not exactly a tourist mecca. Listowel has (or rather had) John B. and that's about it.