Athlone - Mullingar line

73rd Mile was an intermediate block post between the 72nd and 73rd mile posts, intended to break up the Athlone - Moate section in the days when there was enough traffic to justify block posts every five miles or so. Closed in 1962.

Temp101 wrote: »

73rd Mile is gone some years, but the concrete blocks of the base may still exist as rubble in the undergrowth.

That's right, when I photographed the site, the concrete foundation is still there but the cabin is gone, just a few pieces of wood left lying around. Photo cabin in situ but derelict.
http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20M/Moate/slides/Moate_20120718_011_CC_JA.html

It looks like the future for the railway between the Gateway Towns of Athlone and Mullingar is a cycle path. At a time that a single railway track between Athlone and Portarlington is congested we are turning the former mainline double track alignment into a cycle path! OK.

Its probably an indication that railways are a declining element of economic infrastructure as far as those in charge of regional development are concerned - nothing surprising there. Ironic that the agency that is proposing to spend millions on this exercise (cycling on railway lines - get it) is the National Roads Authority!. And not a peep out of the National Rail Authority CIE. Its a great tactical stroke on the part of the Road Authority to get rid of a potential rival for funds; and a great relief to the Rail Authority that they will not be expected to use it as an actual railway.
Consider if CIE were proposing to spend money turning the national road accessing a major tourist destination into a cycle path in order to give the railway greater control over access. Slightly exagerated but a point worth making all the same. There are examples of restricted road access to tourist destinations in Europe.

Its ironic that at a time we are priding ourselves at constructing a new motorway between Dublin and Galway which will get you between the points in two and a half hours we feel the need to put the icing on the cake and give people the choice of cycling the 125 miles between the two points and we're going to spend €10m building part of a new cycleway on top of a former double track intercity railway alignment.

If it were a storyline on an episode of the Simpsons we'd cry foul for portraying the Irish in a bad light.

The cost of doubling the 13 mile section from Galway to Athenry was costed by CIE a few years ago at €190m so it is safe to assume to double Athlone to Portarlington which is 40 miles would be about €700m especially when you consider the existing formation was never designed for double track while the Galway Athenry section was. The cost of re-opening the 30 mile Athlone to Mullingar route in contrast is about €100m according to information given to Westmeath County Council in May. Cost Benefit Analysis?

It appears cycling may be the future for other mainline routes unless there is a serious upgrade of rail services nationwide in the near future. And I mean upgrade of services as distinct from infrastructure because we have new trains on new tracks with new signalling but sadly slower services than we enjoyed before all this investment. The railways are in danger of being "engineered" out of existance.
Passengers are complaining of headaches caused by the blowing of horns at level crossings - even farmers crossings. Consider there are about 170 crossings between Athlone and Westport and you will get the idea. Of course with recordings now available post incident it is imperative that such a rule is obayed rigidly or the mis-user of the crossing will win in any court action against the railway where it is proven that the train did'nt sound its horn, " so I just drove straight out in front of it Your Honour, Sir".

When people make silly rules they should think about the consequences. When there was a locomotive between the passenger and the horn, combined with the greater discretion then available to the Driver, there was less disturbance to the passenger. Consider if every car truck and bus had to blow their horn at every junction, including farmers gates they pass on the road. But these are the rules and if you travel by train expect noise. When trains were first invented a flagman had to walk in front to warn of its arrival. The RSA is steadily engineering our railways back to those times - ie. 10mph approaches from a mile outside intercity termini and such like.

Now I must oil the aul tandum 'cause I have to meet a potential inward investor I'm bringing to The Wehst from Dublin Airport in the morning and shure we'll have a great chat during the three day cycle down along the closed down intercity mainline!

It looks like the future for the railway between the Gateway Towns of Athlone and Mullingar

arrah come off it. Nobody gives the National Spatial Strategy To Preserve As Many Seats As Possible much credence.

The 190m figure for Galway Athenry has long been considered an oddly high one - given Ennis-Athenry cost 60% of that - we never got the full story on what the breakdown was.

If the line was never reinstated during our most prosperous period of economic growth, it will never happen now sadly. And although the line would bring greatly flexibilities within the network as many people have said already, Connolly has capacity issues, so it would not make economic sense! and thats all it comes down to..

we could have so much more in relation to our railways, but it wasn't to be, but i suppose we got intercity 125s running between galway and limerick so shur its grand, oh wait, this line should have never been closed in the first place, i believe 1 train left mote around midnight? thats a great time to have a train service isn't it, still unlike other viable lines like navon that shouldn't have been closed but were and completely lifted because CIE knew they would have been candidates for reopening in the future so wanted to make sure that couldn't happen at least this one survives for now

Was it a busy line?

Losty Dublin wrote: »

That was the Galway Mail train. It ran via Moate into Connolly for easy access to the then Sheriff Street sorting office.

That was known as the ghost train. As far as i know it was possible to travel on it as a passenger......paying or not i dont know.

Can anybody tell me how (or why) the current station won out to be the single station to remain open?

dowlingm wrote: »

I think there's a case you can make for reinstating Athlone-Mullingar but the stars have to really line up because there's a lot of expense to be contemplated - mini CTC, automated LCs, rehab of the alignment, inspection of bridges and after that what do you get? Not an awful lot without a platform on the East bank in Athlone plus you have additional movements on a Mullingar-Broombridge setup which is already heavily committed. Now you're talking about a LOT of money or else reduce the number of movements over that line to freight and maybe some Gaeltacht/GAA specials which don't have to call at Athlone.

Not sure of the local terrain, but would a diversion of the line be posible, so that it could call at the current Athlone Station.

The satilite imagary on Google maps shows mostly open space between the two lines where you would want a deviation to go.