‘An obsession with seizing railway and installing greenway’
A SLIGO member of the West On Track group, which is campaigning for the re-opening of the Western Rail Corridor which once linked Sligo and Limerick by train, has responded to the opinion piece by Pat McCarrick, chairperson of the Sligo Greenway Co-op, in the Sligo Weekender of February 4.
In that piece, Mr McCarrick set out his argument as to why we have to make a choice between having a greenway or a railway on the closed railway route. In response, Peter Bowen-Walsh, on behalf of West On Track, writes: “Reading through the opinion piece ‘Greenway or railway – why we can’t have both’, there seems to be an obsession with seizing the railway and replacing it with a greenway. “The tenor of the article is: do it now, do it on the railway and that’s all you’re going to get, if you are to get anything at all.
“Is there an expansionist agenda from a Sligo-based group with designs on both Counties Mayo and Galway included in the headline Collooney to Athenry?” “At this month’s meeting of Mayo County Council monthly meeting, a motion that the Western Rail Corridor would be reserved exclusively for rail use, was unanimously passed.
“This is in line with the Mayo County Development plan and the North West Regional Authority, Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy.
“It recognises that the railway will be an integral part of the infrastructural spine of the Atlantic Economic Corridor, necessary to accelerate the economic agglomeration effect of the cities and towns along it.
“This progressive view by Mayo County Council with regard to future infrastructure demonstrates a local commitment to upgrade the region. It is the same spirit and commitment that delivered Knock airport. “The best investment for the region at this, or any time, is infrastructure to allow the northwest quadrant of Ireland to realise its full potential and be a net contributor to the economy.
“The Waterford greenway was built on an abandoned part of the truncated Waterford-Mallow line and was retained to serve a currently closed industrial plant. It had become a branch line with no strategic rail connectivity. The WRC, on the other hand, is a potential trunk rail route connecting the towns and cities of the west, with substantial strategic connectivity.
“Further into the piece, there is an unsubstantiated claim without any supportive evidence that the government wants to reduce the size of the rail network. “Reading further along, €40 to €50 million for a ‘beside’ the railway option is implied as huge money now, yet it reduces to ‘small money’ when lumped in with the cost of building the “new” railway in ‘years to come’.
“No consideration is given to the fact that the future cost of relocating the greenway from ‘on’ to ‘beside’ the line, would have a substantially negative effect on the cost benefit analysis of reopening the railway.
“An ‘either or’ mentality is perpetuated where broadband rollout is mentioned as a much better investment than the WRC. “This mindset allows departmental mandarins to divide and conquer different regional demands, disbursing as little as possible to this region. Both railway and broadband utilities are necessary
“There are indeed substantial funds available for greenway development and it should not be beyond the ingenuity of those seeking a north-south greenway to determine a route that does not interfere with the integrity of the railway.
“Time to stop squabbling for crumbs, demand a loaf to sustain the region into the future.”