Pete_Cavan wrote: » Looks like the Velorail project isn't the only one getting grants, Ballyglunin station to get some restoration works done;https://irl.eu-supply.com/ctm/Supplier/PublicPurchase/188041/0/0?returnUrl=ctm/Supplier/publictenders&b=ETENDERS_SIMPLE Is it currently in any sort of use?
eastwest wrote: » The license isn't an issue, Irish Rail will be happy to give them another ten years to keep fluting around and making grant applications. After all, it's not like there are any plans to put a train on it.
westtip wrote: » Not heard if its finished yet, it must be though, the license expires in 2027 at this rate it will never get off the ground!
eastwest wrote: » I think that project is probably finished and ready to open. The first money was for the project, including the carts, and the second was for an overspend, I think. And as I remember, the third tranche of money was to finish the project and buy the carts. So it must be well finished by now, with maybe two sets of carts, judging by the funding applications. I'd say there'll be a ribbon cutting ceremony there one of these days. It was probably just delayed because of covid, waiting for the crowds of tourists to be able to travel..
westtip wrote: » Anyone any idea what happened to that Velorail project that got three grants of €180k originally, then €117k when the original funding wasn't enough then another €198K when they chanced their arm for more money under Leader funding with an application in November 2018. I was always under the impression that Leader funding only went to new projects and it wasn't in Leader funding regulations if a project already had 200K in funding it could not get anymore funding. I seem to remember this being the case, Maybe that rule doesn't apply when you ask in Mayo? It must have been some compelling application to get another bung of €198,000 back in 2019 when they had already received nearly €300k in public funding. I'd love to see that funding application and the arguments they put forward that were so compelling they got another €200k, I wonder how they explained how the first tranche of grants for €180k and €117k were spent, I assume they gave a good account of how that money had been spent because the entire original project was budgeted to be €200k for the whole caboogle and they still managed to squeeze another €198k out of leader capital funding.
Sam Russell wrote: » The motorway is built, but it is too far east of Galway, the jams at the Coolagh Roundabout are testimony to that.
ShaneC1600 wrote: » Regardless of where any new route runs into Galway City the end of the road will be a roundabout of some description where traffic will build up.
Sam Russell wrote: » The M17 should have been routed along the outer bypass, and provided that function. The current route dumps all East Galway, South Galway, and east of Athenry traffic at the Coolagh roundabout. That is the problem.
Sam Russell wrote: » So they are now planning such a car park - a bypass or a ring road, or whatever they call it this week. Planning was never a strong suit in Galway - City or County.
Sam Russell wrote: » The motorway is built, but it is too far east of Galway, the jams at the Coolagh Roundabout are testimony to that. The M18/M17 should have been built as the M20 between Limerick and Cork. Whether the M17 should have been built as a motorway is a different question - would a DC like the Tuam bypass have been enough - probably. But it is built, and will be paid for before the train will travel from Athenry to Tuam.
Deleted User wrote: » There's a reason they didnt do that, it would have ended up being a parking lot like the M50 at peak times. The M17/M18 is located where it is to deliberately not become a part of the city network of roads.
ShaneC1600 wrote: » What has the location of of M17 got to do with the traffic at the Coolagh roundabout? If it was built closer to the city traffic would be even more. The outer bypass is the only answer to that build up of traffic. I know lots of people that join the motorway at Ballyglunin heading for town even though the road is so far east. So much is made of the Western Rail Corridor but only because a few people would like a walkway on it and only because they are too lazy to actually put forward any other greenway options. The only merit the WRC offers for a greenway is that it is publicly owned because no one would waste time planning a greenway there otherwise.
ezstreet5 wrote: » On thing is for sure, Central Mayo is getting completely shafted and will not see any of the tens of thousands of high tech, high-paying greenway jobs that are being held up by the rail barons who would destroy the transportation corridor tomorrow by reinstating rail service.
end of the road wrote: » the people of east mayo? it was a small few people, some who may be from east mayo and probably others from further affield. the council obviously feel as i do that there are much better ideas out there for a greenway which would actually deliver benefits, rather then a poor one along the old railway which would be a greenway for the sake of it. and i have read plenty of stuff from WOT, no harking back with anything of it that i have read.
eastwest wrote: » You obviously never read any of their pronouncements The scale required will never see these kinds of processes carried out in a small country, particularly a first-world country. In addition, the cost of making a dirty plant like Asahi compliant with EU and Irish law would make it unworkable. We will never see their likes again, nor do we want to. So, Mayo County Council has a 'stance'? Does that mean that the recent process of public submissions to the draft county development plan was just a joke? Does it mean they have made their minds up already and won't listen to the people of east mayo? And is that why West on track didn't make a submission?
end of the road wrote: » there is certainly no harking back from west on track anyway, at least i have never saw any.
industries like Asahi will be allowed while there is a need for the products they produced. whether they would ever be produced here again is a different story but they will be allowed.
the truth is that the council in mayo actually do understand, hence their stance.
Sam Russell wrote: » Well, if the hinterland between Tuam and Athenry increases to a level that a railway is needed, then it should be built. However, there are many other areas in Ireland that would still be ahead of it. The eighties was thirty to forty years ago.
eastwest wrote: » The entire rulebook will have to be rewritten given the Zoom revolution and the working from home initiatives. The fundamental error in the rail lobby thinking in respect of the western transport corridor is that they hark back all the time. Back to dirty industries like Asahi, projects that will never be allowed again. Back to manufacturing of products that will never be built in Ireland because of scale and globalisation. Back to when we exported all our raw materials for others to process. Back to when nobody had a car, when the roads were so bad that they couldn't sustain a decent bus service. And back to when the only way was out, on a train. The notion of exports going out on a fibre optic cable is lost on them. As is the concept of repopulating rural areas with people who can work once they have connectivity, and who will stay once the quality of life issues attract them back. Things like surfing, or mountain biking, or greenways. But as we've seen, there is no persuading the small coterie of groupthinkers in county councils that we are living in the twenty first century. They just don't understand. Instead, they make claims to the effect that 1,000 freight trains a year leave Mayo (the actual figure is just over a third of that). Or claims that west on track made a submission to the Mayo Draft county Development plan explaining how it will all work if some magic money appears to build a fantasy railway. (If they did, I can't find it).
Losty Dublin wrote: » These few works ultimately sums the Greenway argument. It's all about us and only us.
ShaneC1600 wrote: » What is your opinion on the Athenry to Tuam motorway?
eastwest wrote: » Things like surfing, or mountain biking, or greenways.
Sam Russell wrote: » I would take the opposite view. Rail is not just public transport, but mass public transport - population concentration is vital. The Dublin and Cork are the only areas in Ireland that warrant further investment in new railway lines, and even at that Dublin is the only real contender.
Sam Russell wrote: » I would take the opposite view. Rail is not just public transport, but mass public transport - population concentration is vital. The Dublin and Cork are the only areas in Ireland that warrant further investment in new railway lines, and even at that Dublin is the only real contender. The Covid bill is going to have to be paid. Infrastructure funding needs to be prioritised, and rail expenditure needs to go towards Metrolink, Dart Expansion +, and the retention of the Dublin Wexford and Dublin Waterford lines. The dual tracking of the Limerick to Limerick Junction, and Galway to Athenry are worthy investments. Any existing lines under pressure needs to be funded to retain them, and that includes Ennis to Athenry, before any further funds are invested in lost causes, and Athenry to Tuam is certainly in that category.
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