COMMENT: Removing scrap rails will not stop a railway being built
FOLLOWING last week's article in the Sligo Weekender (Page 5: “No justification” for ripping up railways track and replacing it with “bicycle track” says Mayor) I am keen to offer a different view and more so to lay out the facts as I see them:
There is no plan to build a railway north of Claremorris before 2040, at least. The existing rails and sleepers are scrap which will have to be removed to build a railway.
It is completely untrue to say that removing scrap rails will stop a railway being built. It is equally untrue to say that a greenway will stop a railway from being built.
Greenways on closed rail routes are built under a license that always gives priority to rail. Greenways keep closed rail routes in public ownership and protect them from squatters.
A greenway can create more jobs than a medium-sized factory. Waterford Greenway attracted 250,000 unique visitors in the first year of operation. Greenways provide a superb local amenity for families. Greenways provide a safe route to school and work. A railway from Claremorris to Collooney would cost approximately €700 million. A greenway from Claremorris to Collooney would cost approximately €9 million.
There is no funding available for a railway for the foreseeable future. There is funding available for a greenway, the councils just have to apply for it. Irish Rail have entered a licensing agreement with Sligo County Council handing over the line so that a Greenway can be developed. Irish rail is very happy with this agreement.
Two weeks ago I was invited to an Oireachtas Petitions committee hearing on the Sligo Mayo Greenway. 27,000 people have signed a petition requesting that a Greenway be built on the Sligo to Claremorris/Athenry line.
This is an edited version of my contribution to that committee:
“I am very pleased to be able to inform the committee that Sligo County Council has listened to the public and heeded what people have been saying in Sligo.
I am pleased to confirm that as far as Sligo is concerned, the Council is firmly in favour of the Sligo Greenway which will run on the closed railway from Collooney southwards to the Sligo/Mayo border at Charlestown, until such time as a railway might be economically viable. This part of the route will be known as the Sligo Greenway. However, this is only part of a much bigger project that Sligo County Council is working on with the Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
Working with Leitrim and Cavan local authorities and Fermanagh and Omagh District council, a cross border project has been agreed to develop a greenway on the closed railway route from Enniskillen to Collooney and to continue then to Charlestown. This cross-border co-operation is part of the legacy of the Good Friday Agreement and has benefitted from the Shared Island Fund.
The Department of Transport working with Transport Infrastructure Ireland has already invested over half a million euro in taking the plans for this long-distance cross border greenway through the first development stages. Sligo County Council is now working closely with these agencies to take the project to the final stages of planning and ultimately construction. The Sligo greenway will be of huge significance to the region, benefitting both Tourism and be a huge local amenity for communities along the route.
It is important for the committee to take note that as far as Sligo is concerned the Sligo section of the Western Rail Trail will happen, it is such a pity the same cannot be said for Mayo.
As a member of Sligo County Council, I have made representation to Mayo County Council to consider joining with Sligo to extend the Sligo greenway down through Mayo as far as Claremorris and to allow East Mayo to benefit from the tourism boom this would bring to the region. If the Sligo Greenway could connect through
Mayo to the Great Western Greenway, just imagine the benefits this would bring to the region. It would be simply a huge economic benefit for the region and be of huge social benefit to the people in towns such as Charlestown, Swinford, Kiltimagh and Claremorris.
I ask the committee to take our thoughts to all the Departments concerned and ask that the people in Mayo and Galway be listened to, the idea of a greenway along this closed railway is quite simply a no brainer.
George Ball, an American diplomat, said “nostalgia is a seductive liar”. Like a talented seductress, nostalgia will rope you in and cause you to lose sight of reality. It will present you with a sugar-coated version of the past: sweet enough to dampen the present and colourful enough to cast a shadow on the future.
My vision for our country is to have an All Island, All Ireland, cross border, cross community necklace of Greenways that will change Ireland's future so positively for many decades to come. We owe this to our future generations. This is not just a dream, but a feasible and attainable goal, if we work together and harness the power of greenways to transform our island into a model of sustainability, inclusivity, and well-being.