Western Rail Corridor / Rail Trail Discussion

Deleted User wrote: »

Im looking forward to going for a spin on that one when it opens. Hmm, might actually head over to Athlone next week for a spin up to Mullingar

If you live on the rail line you can leave the car at home, bringing your bike for free!!

ezstreet5 wrote: »

It's all 1600 mm and not narrow gauge.

Sorry it was a light railway which will require a complete rebuild as heavy rail, the cost of which would be astronomical.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Sorry it was a light railway which will require a complete rebuild as heavy rail, the cost of which would be astronomical.

Yes, so I think it should be a green-way.

Geuze wrote: »

Yes, so I think it should be a green-way.

Exactly. Because we all know that absolutely nobody lives along the old railway, so it is obvious that it should become a greenway which would bring huge economic benefits to all of the villages and towns and people living along the old railway.

Isambard wrote: »

it would be correct to say it was a cheaply built line . A Light Railway is another thing altogether.

No it was built for lighter rolling stock than standard, therefore will have to be rebuilt to accommodate IE trains. It was a light railway at the time but that differs from the modern understanding of the term.

Has anyone been able to locate this Rail Unit Cost Tool? I believe it's an Excel file.

https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/publications/reports/2018/assessment-of-unit-costs-standard-prices-of-rail-projects-capital-expenditure

Del.Monte wrote: »

And the Mullingar/Sligo line would make a very pretty greenway too.



I think the Duke of Wellington would approve as he reckoned railways would only encourage the lower orders to roam aimlessly across the land - away with them.



i

Except it hasn't been closed for 40 years and nobody, but nobody is asking for this to happen, so the relevance of saying this is lost on me.

Isambard wrote: »

even LIght Railways don't necessarily have lighter rolling stock. Light Railway is a legal term used to denote railways built under different legislation to the normal parliamentary process that set up most railway lines.

Knock Special at Claremorris havng come up the Burma Road from Limerick

From the report on which the reopening of Athenry - Ennis was based;

https://web.archive.org/web/20060922090156/http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/6645-0.pdf

I understand that there are two main reasons why the cost of the Claremorris Collooney section is very high. Firstly, when it was built in 1891-1892 the section was constructed as a light railway. If it were to be brought into the IE network the formation would have to be rebuilt to the national heavy rail standard. The second relates to the cost of necessary alterations to level crossings, of which there are a total of 290 along the section, two of which alone would cost €24m to create grade separations.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

From the report on which the reopening of Athenry - Ennis was based;

https://web.archive.org/web/20060922090156/http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/6645-0.pdf

while the line is referred to as a light railway, it is not actually a light railway at all but rather a railway built on the cheap, it could and did take standard CIE stock including many of the early CIE diesels.
nobody is denying the line would have to be completely rebuilt if it did ever reopen.
ultimately any line reopening or new build line is going to be done to the standard that would exist on the national network at the time of it's build/rebuild. so anything opening today would be to the standards of today's railway, and anything in a couple of decades to the standard of the railway of a couple of decades time.

westtip wrote: »

Hilarious LG absolutely hilarious.

Fatigue and bemusement are the final arguments of the defeated.

ezstreet5 wrote: »

At those prices (albeit outdated), the entire line represents a low cost and good value for money.

Athenry - Ennis was estimated at €74.7m, it opened at a cost of €106m five years later, almost 50% uplift. Applying the same to the Athenry - Tuam section, it would have cost €50m 10 years ago. Add in a new bridge over the N63, then 10 years of inflation to get to todays cost, then add another 10 years inflation for when it might actually get built (probably a lot more). If the report which has already been prepared ever gets published, it might give an updated cost estimate.

That isn't low cost and certainly isn't good value for an hourly shuttle service (the existing line doesn't have space for direct trains) from a town of 10k people. Low cost and good value for money would be a bus service that provides the same service at greater frequency at a fraction of the cost, if public transport was actually the concern here.

Tuam to Claremorris would cost >€100m on top of that. A proper NPV cost analysis would show that kind of money isn't justifiable. With the poor usage on Athenry - Ennis, there is no way the government will be investing such money into more WRC and IE don't want another loss making line anyway.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

With the poor usage on Athenry - Ennis,

The statement above shows you know very little about the line and its usage pre COVID anyways! You might want to skip on from the fiction area!!

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Athenry - Ennis was estimated at €74.7m, it opened at a cost of €106m five years later, almost 50% uplift. Applying the same to the Athenry - Tuam section, it would have cost €50m 10 years ago. Add in a new bridge over the N63, then 10 years of inflation to get to todays cost, then add another 10 years inflation for when it might actually get built (probably a lot more). If the report which has already been prepared ever gets published, it might give an updated cost estimate.

That isn't low cost and certainly isn't good value for an hourly shuttle service (the existing line doesn't have space for direct trains) from a town of 10k people. Low cost and good value for money would be a bus service that provides the same service at greater frequency at a fraction of the cost, if public transport was actually the concern here.

Tuam to Claremorris would cost >€100m on top of that. A proper NPV cost analysis would show that kind of money isn't justifiable. With the poor usage on Athenry - Ennis, there is no way the government will be investing such money into more WRC and IE don't want another loss making line anyway.

Super expensive. That money would be better spent to build 5% of a children's hospital in Dublin, or 10 km of Motorway, or we could extend Covid payments for another 3.5 weeks.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Look at the boardings and alightings numbers for Gort, Ardrahan and Craughwell

21, 3 and 20. Wouldn't even fill a bus.