West on track
By Maria Moynihan, Farmers Journal 5th May 2007.
Trains running from Limerick to Athenry at the end of 2008, commuter services from Tuam to Galway by 2011 and the re-opening of the line to Claremorris by 2014: the Western Rail Corridor is well on track. But what about Sligo? Maria Moynihan reports.
When Ann Melia moved from Dublin to Claremorris, Co Mayo, in 1999, she hoped to find a better quality of life in rural Ireland. However, with a gruelling 88-mile daily drive to work in Galway City, the mother of two says "the jury is out". And all because of the lack of a commuter rail service in the west.
"When you travel 440 miles a week, there isn't much left of you," she explained. "In 1999, I'd leave Claremorris at 7.30am and be in Galway for 8.20am. My journey now takes me one hour and 10 minutes. I leave the house at 6.30am and I'm now waking up at 5.15am every morning. Am I going to have to get up at 4.15am next? It's absurd."
Ms Melia's story is representative of what many people in the west are experiencing. A local survey shows that commuters from Claremorris to Galway spend the equivalent 11 working weeks in their car annually.
However, such nightmare car journeys are set to be a thing of the past with the phased re-opening of the Western Rail Corridor from 2008, according to a recent conference organised in Claremorris by West on Track in association with the Western Development Commission.
The Western Rail Corridor
"Western Rail Corridor: Promoting Regional Balance" brought interests and experts from the business, tourism, environmental and community sectors together to examine the economic and social benefits of re-opening train services between Limerick and Sligo on a route known as the Western Rail Corridor.
Trains on the corridor have been closed for over 30 years; the Claremorris-Collooney line closed to passengers in 1963; while services between Limerick and Claremorris ceased in 1976. This has left the west of Ireland without a regional rail service. For example, to take a train from Limerick to Galway or Galway to Sligo, one would have to travel via Dublin.
However, community effort in the intervening decades succeeded in preserving the old line, and in 2003 a campaign entitled West on Track was established in over 30 cities and towns throughout the West of Ireland to lobby for the re-opening of the Western Rail Corridor.
Transport 21
Their efforts paid off. In November 2005, the Government committed to re-opening the Western Rail Corridor in its Transport 21 policy.
According to the document, there was to be a phased re-opening of the Ennis-to-Claremorris section and the upgrade of the Athenry-to-Galway line for commuter services,thus linking the cities of Limerick and Galway with an onward connection to Claremorris on the Dublin-Westport line.
Transport 21 also specified that the line from Claremorris to Collooney was also to be preserved. Timelines included Athenry to Ennis (2008), Galway to Athenry commuter services (2009), Athenry to Tuam (2011) and Tuam to Claremorris (2014).
Project Progress
But what is happening one year on? According to Iarnród Éireann CEO Dick Fearn, significant progress has been made towards achieving the deadlines of Transport 21, with services starting as early as next year.
Addressing the conference, Mr Fearn explained that the Ennis-Athenry line - with stations at Sixmilebridge, Gort, Ardrahan, Craughwell and Oranmore - will be running by December 2008, with up to seven services daily in each direction. This line will link the cities of Galway and Limerick by rail, with a just less than two-hour end-to-end journey time as the company works on reducing the number of level crossings on the track, which currently stand every quarter of a mile.
Mr Fearn also outlined the development of phase two of the Western Rail Corridor, which will link Athenry to Tuam by 2011. Current projections estimate a 40-minute train journey from Tuam to Galway City, which Iarnród Éireann believes will be attractive to commuters if it's a reliable, peak service. There will also be interval off-peak services timetabled to correspond with connections at Athenry to and from Dublin to create "a sensible, integrated, railway operation".
The Tuam-to-Claremorris line is scheduled for completion at 2013/14, but Mr Fearn said technical specifications, speed and service levels are still in development. However, he emphasised that he and his colleagues are committed to making the Western Rail Corridor, "a crucial part of the Iarnród Éireann modern rail network", with diesel rolling stock, continuous welded rail and signalling controlled from Connolly Station, Dublin.
Bringing The Railway To Sligo
But while such progress is a major step forward towards the final goal, for commuters like Ann Melia, the 2014 deadline is seven years too late. There is also dissatisfaction on the ground over the lack of timescale from the Government for the re-opening of the Claremorris-Sligo line.
With 2.5 million passenger journeys between Sligo and Claremorris annually, "you don't have to be a genius to see that you need a rail service," declared Colmán Ó Raghallaigh, West on Track, at the conference.
However, while Minister for Community, Gaeltacht and Rural Affairs, Eamon Ó Cuív - who delivered the keynote address after Transport Minister Martin Cullen had to pull out of the event - stated that the Government was committed to opening the line in its entirety, he could not give a deadline for the Sligo service.
"I would like here to reiterate that commitment made by my colleague Martin Cullen at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis that we're committed to this railway line from Sligo to Limerick," Minister Ó Cuív told the conference.
"Now the big debate here today is timescale, and of course you're always in [trouble] in politics with timescales. I have to say, my own general reaction to timescales is as soon as possible and I try to create the possibility that possible is soon."
Minister Ó Cuív stressed that €5 million Clár funding had been allocated to the restoration of the Claremorris-Sligo line, with almost 50 miles of the corridor cleared in the last six months and the commencement of site works such as drainage and signage in May. He announced that his department will be working to provide further Clár funding to restore the line and so speed up the process of getting train services back on track.
"What I'm now asking my department to do is to enter discussions with Iarnród Eireann and the Department of Transport in the relation of the next phase of Clár funding to be spent in the 2008/'09 period," he stated. "I believe there are further works that we can do usefully with the modest funding that my department can provide to expedite and deal with issues well in advance of the section line in the Clár area, and once we've finished these discussions, we'll make an announcement."
Minister Ó Cuív stressed that other factors would drive the Western Rail Corridor forward, such as decentralisation, continued support for Shannon and Ireland West (Knock) airports, local authorities planning for priority settlement in towns along the line and the growing population of Connaught.
And he signed off by stating that if the community continues to work together, they will get their railway.
"I think, from where we were two years ago and where we are today, we've made a major step," he said. "Rather than get involved in one-line promises, what I think we have to do is work to comprehensive policies that make it an inevitability, and an inevitability that makes it a reality in the shorter term rather than the longer term."
Effect On The West
Chief Executive of Western Development Commission Gillian Buckley welcomed Minister Ó Cuív's pledge of further Clár funding. However, she reiterated the importance of a commitment to re-opening the line to Sligo.
"The WDC strongly advocates the re-introduction of services as far as Sligo, which is experiencing significant growth, and will be the only gateway town whose rail link to other gateways is via Dublin," she explained.
"Opening the line will also connect 14 medium and smaller-sized towns on a North-South transport corridor, generating additional demand and employment growth, attracting new enterprises and growing tourism."
Ms Buckley said that while the rest of the country had prospered in recent years, the West had been left behind. The Western Development Commission and West on Track see the Western Rail Corridor as a key factor in addressing the regional imbalance.
"Prosperity and development has improved in the west over the last decade, along with everywhere else in the country, but I think the gap has actually widened rather than narrowed. We would like to see more focus on narrowing that gap and bringing the west of Ireland up to the National standard," she explained.
"Access is critical, both of people and goods. Public transport is critical to deliver social and economic benefits. Railway is a key driver of economic growth. If you think about the 19th Century, the railway brought jobs to areas and we see the Western Rail Corridor delivering that for the west of Ireland in the 21st century."
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Huge print of railway map etc from Farmers Journal at the bottom of the article on the site - 10mb size]
