Western Rail Corridor

Just looking at the emerging preferred route plans of the new route to Navan and there is a lot of deviation from the original alignment - well over half (nearly roughly 2 thirds by the looks of it) of the new line will be built on a brand new alignment.

I wonder if this poses any positives for the potential reopening of Athenry to Claremorris… I know the biggest mistake with the first leg of the WRC was that it stuck rigorously to the original route and much to its detriment in terms of speed and ridership.

It would be great if IÉ have learned from this and take the same ballsy moves from the Navan Line into this project (whenever it may happen - which should not be before DART+ or anything else critical…) and make amendments of the route north of Tuam to provide a higher running speed and less crossings of the N17 - maybe a complete elimination of level crossings…?

Just a thought, but it does seem Irish Rail are getting less afraid to make these moves away from reopening a line exactly, and are doing what’s best for the railway, not necessarily what’s easiest or cheapest. Hopefully it carries forward.

sure, but it's irrelevant as.

1. claremorris is not the only town to be served on the WRC phase 2.
   1. the poster's point is that they should take some lessons from the proposed navan line like removing level crossings where possible ETC, which is a good lesson whatever the population of a line.

In light of the recent route announcement for the Navan Line alignment, and how much it deviates from the original alignment for the betterment of the route, how likely do we actually think it is that the Western Rail Corridor will be realigned between Tuam and Claremorris for a straighter and faster route, which also avoids 4 unnecessary road crossings…?

A station in Ballindine would still be possible, (if deemed in any way necessary…) but it would require a substantial realignment of the route, which seems like it would take longer to design, go through public consultation, and construct, than the current 2031 target date they’ve set…

This makes me think they will stick with the original alignment unfortunately, which north of Tuam is quite a weak alignment.

Is there any hope still for bridging of the four N17 crossings if they do decide to go with the easiest/cheapest/(laziest) option of sticking with the original alignment?

I suppose Galway to Tuam will be the main traffic of the line, but it would be nice if they treated the Tuam to Claremorris section with the same care that they are treating the Navan Line - it might make the difference in the end when it comes to ridership and modal share takeover…

The multiple level crossings of the N17 are unprecedented though. There is nowhere in Ireland where a road as busy as that has 4 crossings with an active railway over a short distance.

I don't think it's realistic that the WRC will reopen with those crossings in place. The problem is that bridges will add massive cost to the reopening and would require design work and planning permission.

I'm not sure if anyone in government considered any of this when they announced the reopening. My worry is that IE and TII will spend years faffing about and arguing if the bridges should be built as part of the reopening and paid for by IE, or as separate road projects funded by TII.

There is also the risk that TII would be reluctant as building the bridges on the current N17 would kill any possibility of the Claremorris to Tuam dual carriageway being built in our lifetimes.

The dream scenario is that they decide to build the new dual carriageway ASAP as a solution instead of bridging all the level crossings.