you can be dam sure it will be delayed so no action can take place under this Dail, the tactic of West on Track now is to delay it further as the only political support that exists for this project is from SF; SF and WOT are glued together and O'Raggilly knows his ultimate dream will only come to fruition from the SF/WOT alliance. God knows why they see this as the saviour of the West is beyond any rational thinking in the meantime with some of the comments flying around about the NDP at present its worth looking at what certain people said in the past, strange how they don't stick by what they say.
Thanks. Please keep us updated on progress on the Charlestown->Collooney section - for those of us who are not on Facebook.
Once Charlestown->Collooney gets built, the ridiculousness of MCC opposing a Greenway on the Claremorris->Charlestown section will be exposed for all to see - unless of course they'd be then proposing a service that would terminate at Charlestown?!🙄
I see that Sinn Fein are bringing a Private Members motion to the Dail tomorrow on Regional Transport Infrastructure - among the wish-list it "calls on the government to ... commit to delivering the Western Rail Corridor". Their Mayo TD, says that "The failure to include a Western Rail Corridor [in the National Development Plan] was a missed opportunity". Hmmmm ... "a" Western Rail Corridor. Not "the" Western Rail Corridor? Maybe she has another one in mind!
Anyway, she's keeping her WOTsApp group happy, and that's the important thing!
I think this covers it
Sinn Fein/West on Track SFWOT does this phrase now make sense:
https://www.oceanfm.ie/2021/11/11/opening-the-collooney-claremorris-rail-line-will-lead-to-investment-and-jobs/?fbclid=IwAR2DzgarNy4uq4M-_dGPXyMxOaJq0zXvspK2fGmfFqflc93hXDW_3OcHy6I
Annoyingly the podcast is for a different story
Yep that is a pity but it shows the plans of SF/WOT this mouthpiece of a cllr has clearly been given orders to start getting the railway back on the agenda in the council and in the county, even though the county executive backed by the chamber are busy spending €300.000 seed funding money to get this project off the mark and Minister Ryan fully backs the Sligo Greenway, the SF/WOT plan is to stall the project as long as possible.hopefully people will see this latest attempt to bring the railway back into the debate on this stretch of the so called Western Rail Corridor, it is all about stalling the greenway, they know full well when the Sligo greenway is built and terminates in Charlestown people in East Mayo will finally go ballistic with the council and the East Mayo Greenway to Claremorris will have to happen. Watch this space SF/WOT are targeting the Sligo Greenway.
This is another major blow to the Athenry-Tuam greenway. Anyone suggesting otherwise is in cloud cuckoo land. https://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-news-desk/details-of-preferred-route-corridor-for-athlone-galway-greenway-emerge/
Off topic but having spent 4 days cycling around Gort/Kinvara/Derrybrien/Abbey/Abbeyshrule and the Sliabh Aughty mountains over a warm few days in August, it is lovely countryside. A part of the world I knew nothing about but certainly one I would revisit on the bike. Greenway or not.
It's a pity, I did some work on that in Athenry, we tried linking with other communities etc.... but I know the work Katleen put into promoting it around Gort, she was a powerhouse. I felt the business & community buy in was more.... I dunno... considered for the red route. They were very positive & there was some friendly banter between Gort & Athenry cycling groups. We promote & support each others work so we can't begrudge them.
The Red Route certainly ticks the boxes of grabbing as many attractions along the way as possible although I think much of the so-called greenway will be parallel to roadside segregated cycling- which is fine by me and I suspect many others too. As you say the enthusiasm was negligible on some routes, with one local councillor in Mountbellew offering to resdesign the most northerly route (to exclude alongside the rail alignment) before it was even considered. The faces of the project promoters suggested he put a nail in that coffin before it even started.
As was said on another thread, the route chosen was probably the path of least IFA resistence.
Or the least WOT resistance 😅
Indeed, it should have gone through Loughrea originally, and be built by now, but I believe Political interference stalled the process & moved the project south.
https://irishcycle.com/2015/09/22/td-calls-for-end-to-current-dublin-to-galway-greenway-route/
edit - wrong thread
Great news out today from TII.
€120,000 allocated to the Western Rail Trail sections in Sligo & Galway from TII announced today.
A further 70k allocated to Galway Co. Co. for the Athenry to Milltown section (The Quiet Man Greenway) of the Western Rail Trail with a further 50k to Sligo Co. Co. for the Collooney to Bellaghy (Claremorris) section (Sligo Greenway).
Congratulations to Sligo Greenway Co Op and the Quiet Man Greenway committees on being included in the latest tranche of funding.
What's the money for? Pretending to provide sangiges, Tayto and Cavan Cola at their next cider party on the the trackbed? ☺️
The PDF on its own is here. Very impressive when you see the full list of projects together. We're really committed to this stuff now. Great to see.
From a local councillor on Facebook
"RPS Were appointed in October to carry out a feasibility study for a greenway route between Athenry and Milltown. Study area has been defined, environmental and Landscape assessment underway, review of Irish Rail Strategy ongoing. Site walkovers to begin in February"
Everything hinging on the all Island Rail Strategy with the worst-case scenario being a fob. Best case is a decisive finding and NTA taking the project back from the Council in the interest of developing a national network- be it rail or greenway.
Aye, and worst case is a fudge, likely that ends up with the asset remaining unused by anyone
Again and again, Minister after Minister, have all said the same thing. Here, last Thursday Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan reiterited that the route north of Claremorris to Collooney is not viable as rail and that there is broad agreement that it should be used as a Greenway. Even went as far as to say, its only Mayo Co Co which is blocking it!
It sounded like he mentioned Mayo CoCo and thought to himself "oh better not hang them", so mentioned Galway and Sligo too. Granted Galway is a sh*tshow when it comes to greenways but Sligo is pushing ahead themselves so no need to drag them into it.
Seen on a gricer page today. JD, join me for a spin to the Distant Home on opening day?
Nice to see things moving along on the Sligo section. ABP just ruled no EIA is required. Looks like this will shave a nice chunk of time off the delivery of the greenway on the abandoned line, hurrah!
Welp, looks like the WRC can forget TEN-T funding (lol was never going to happen).
The latest TEN-T documents adopted at the Transport council cover nearly 500 billion in spending on infrastructure over the next 30 years.
It doesn't view the WRC as even being extended, let alone funding anything related to it
In fact, as far as freight is concerned, Ireland has opted out of using TEN-T to push forward rail freight
It doesn't even list existing freight terminals for TEN-T funding
The only rail passenger lines put forward for TEN-T funding are the Cork to Belfast spine
So yeah, thats TEN-T removed from the equation for the WRC, not that there was ever any doubt
Now, this is all "IMHO" as I interpret the TEN-T doc's, they are nothing if not convoluted. Given info is spread across nearly 50 documents I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something obvious
Pathetic! The least we could aim for is >200kmh on the Cork to Belfast line.
When is the All Island Strategic Rail Review due?
Before the end of the year was the last report
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