Western Rail Corridor / Rail Trail Discussion

in fairness it mostly did work.

even if it had to be put on a truck at 1 or both ends it meant those trucks were driving short journeys which meant less infrastructure required to cater specifically to them.

even with a good motor way network the less stuff on it the better as it saves maintenence costs and helps with other issues.

certainly we won't see a return to the amounts of rail freight of the past but certainly there is room for growth, and that will need to happen.

Says it all about Mayo....

There is a change in mindset,,,,,

Tomorrows news today!

Its becoming a little clearer what the All Island Rail Review is going to recommend

There seems to be a widespread delusion that were was a Sligo to Letterkenny/Derry rail line that could be reopened. But there wasn't and there isn't even a single corridor to stitch together from the lines that did exist.

The MGWR line always ended at Sligo - there was a branch to the docks but it did not cross the Garravogue. The area between Sligo and Bundoran was never served by rail.

Bundoran and Ballyshannon were served by a standard gauge line from Enniskillen.

There was a Derry-Donegal(-Killybegs) narrow gauge line; with a branch to Ballyshannon - the other side of the river to the Enniskillen & Bundoran.

Letterkenny was on a different railway system entirely; so even if you did reuse the alignment - what hasn't fallen in to the bog - of the CDRJC - to get to Derry and somewhere near the NIR system you would miss the only significant population centre in Donegal!

The article seems to be based on a dail exchange between Ryan and O Cuiv and nothing more.

I cant find the dail transcripts of his question but i highly doubt any mention of WRC serving NI was made by Ryan

Video

From TheJournal today apparently the All-Island Rail Review was supposed to be jointly published by Dublin and Belfast, but since Stormont is in mothballs, the Department of Transport here tells The Journal that the draft review will be published when it is completed in a few weeks.

The Journal understands that the report contains draft proposals to construct a new rail-line connecting Letterkenny in Donegal with Derry, along with moves to reverse greenway plans elsewhere in favour of rail.

These include ... resum[ing] part of the Western Rail Corridor connecting the towns of Athenry in Galway and Claremorris in Mayo.

These lines would focus on freight with the aim of removing haulage vehicles from the road. If successful, there is the possibility of passenger travel resuming on the lines.

The original WRC route north of Claremorris to Collooney is approx. 75km. It is very meandering in parts, was built to a low standard and part of the alignment have been encroached upon. It crosses the N5 and N17 x 2 with no existing provision for grade separation, as well as passing at grade across several busy town streets and riddled with minor at grade crossings.

There was a rail line from Ballaghadereen north connecting to the Sligo between Boyle and Ballymote. The alignment is visible on Google maps although I am not sure how much, if any, is still in state ownership. The terrain is relatively flat with a few small road crossings, the N5 being the only busy road crossing. I'd like to see an assessment of utilising this as a link between the existing Mayo and Sligo rail lines. Basically a link from west of Castlerea to south of Ballymote.

It would be about 30km, 15km of new alignment between Castlerea and Ballaghadereen, and 15km of old alignment north of Ballaghadereen although it could deviate to take a more direct route in places. Even if the route north of Ballaghadereen was essentially rebuilt from scratch, than is basically what would be required with WRC so it is 30km of build v 75km of build.

The distance from Claremorris to Collooney would be about 10km more than WRC (85km v 75km) but the alignment via Ballaghadereen would likely still be faster as it uses fairly straight parts of the existing Mayo (32km Castlerea - Claremorris) and Sligo (23km south of Ballymote - Collooney) rail lines which should allow for higher speeds than WRC. One drawback would be the lack of population with Ballaghadereen being the only town served, although this would be a benefit in some ways allowing for faster journey times.

Using sections of existing track is obviously efficient in terms of maintenance, rather than adding new track incurring additional maintenace costs. It could help to justify double tracking parts of the single track network which would be very beneficial. As well as allowing trains travel between Sligo and Galway, it would also allow connections between Sligo and Castlebar/Westport/Ballina and also Athlone. It would be possible then to send Sligo - Dublin trains via Athlone to Hueston which would be good in terms of removing long distance trains from the busy track east of Maynooth (Longford trains commuter would have to be extended to Boyle).

I think examining this and how it can improve the overall network would be more worthwhile than saying reopen the full WRC because that's the way the trains went 100 years ago.

If going from Galway to Sligo via this route you'd go:

Galway->Oranmore->Athenry->Ballyglunin->Tuam->Milltown->Ballindine->Claremorris->Kiltimagh->Swinford->Charlestown->Tobercurry->Collooney->Sligo.

It might take a longer while to get there if speed is lower due to more stations and less straight track with more LCs.

You'd also be waiting for the state to rebuild 75km of rail line which is unlikely to happen in any of our lifetimes.

as i understand it is correct that it was built to light rail and narrow gauge rail standards but it is definitely a braud gauge line rather then narrow gauge.

trains were able to run the whole through route from limerick to sligo until the closure of mayo to sligo from where they went to mayo only.

i'm sure freight would have come from other destinations as well and specials from various destinations may have ran the through route as a whole in the line's time.

Spotted this in last week's Clare Echo. Local Councillors still pushing for a station at Crusheen.

'Compelling case' to reopen Crusheen railway station to be put before Iarnród Éireann - Clare Echo

https://www.midwestradio.ie/audio/marieraul.mp3

The train is slow and infrequent so until it can be improved in this regard, it's unlikely to attract people from the intermediate stops. It has attracted plenty going from Galway to Limerick and vice versa.

Galway County Council should also seek to concentrate development in these towns and villages over the likes of Kilcolgan and Clarinbridge which are more dependent on the road network.

the problem is that densify first infrastructure later has always been our way and unless it's a road, it hasn't delivered.

so maybe it is time to change tac.

"Build it and they will come" holds true when what is built is fit for purpose.

Reinstatement of a line along an old meandering alignment is setting up for failure from day 1. For the line to succeed it needs to offer an alternative that will be comparable or faster times than bus at a bare minimum, and ideally times that can complete with car commuting times.

The original WRC alignment will never provide a service that's faster - or even equivalent time - compared to the alternatives and will struggle to get viable pax numbers because of that.

For a WRC to actually work then a proper route assessment needs to be carried out. Use elements of the old alignment where it makes sense to do so, but also be willing to deviate from the old alignment (and deviate significantly) where needed.

Too much of the campaign appears to be driven by spotters who are more interested in seeing trains along the old line than in actaully having a service that works.

Ah OK, so anecdotal evidence only. Right, right.

You spend an extra forty minutes going all the way from Galway to Limerick? Meaning you spend an extra eighty minutes per day? Fair play to you - you must love th'oul trains. Percy French would be proud.

Alright, take it handy! I’d love to know where first hand information is now considered anecdotal? I’ll stick to the train and you can stick to your car and your tin foil hat.

The demand is for Tuam to Galway - not Tuam to Athenry.

The diversion via Athenry (and the insistence on stopping at any and every historic stop in between) all adds time, which takes away from the benefits v bus. Especially when you factor in that how much of the Tuam to Galway commuter traffic is heading for the various business parks around Parkmore/Ballybrit

Tuam to Athenry to Galway on the existing alignment (followed by many commuters having to then face the traffic from city centre back out to the business parks) would simply be too slow to get enough modal shift. A proper commuter line would go direct from Tuam to Galway, with a stop at Claregalway, Parkmore and then the alignment heading to meet the mainline around Roscam.

Given how bad we are at building new lines, that's unlikely to get funding anytime in the medium term - but the fact that a viable line won't be built doesn't justify pissing away money on an unviable line that would doomed to failure due to the alignment