— Rail vs greenway debate is especially pointless when it comes to this route.
Comment & Analysis: The Western Railway Corridor rail vs greenway debate has — again — heated up because Sligo County Council is running a public consultation for the ‘Emerging Preferred Route Corridor’ for a greenway on its section of the former railway route. So, it’s worth outlining a few facts.
First of all, what the council are branding as ‘The Sligo Greenway’ is planned to run from Collooney to Bellaghyon.
At Collooney (around 10km south of Sligo town), the Western Railway Corridor used to link with the Sligo-Dublin mainline railway,. And Bellaghyon is a nice way of saying the Co Sligo side of the town of Charlestown, which is mainly in Co Mayo.
The consultation runs until Friday, December 20th and you can find out how to reply at sligogreenway.ie.
The consultation looks at the ‘Emerging Preferred Route Corridor’, which is not an exact route, but the vast majority of the corridor is centred on the disused and unusable railway.
Western Railway Corridor is one of the most flat and widest usable spaces on an Irish railway alignment
The Western Railway Corridor was a single-track railway, and any reinstatement well into the foreseeable future will include keeping it as a single-track railway, maybe with some passing loops.
The rail vs greenway debate is especially pointless when it comes to this route.
The images below from Google Street View taken at level crossings and road overbridges show there’s mostly ample space for a greenway to be placed at a safe distance from the railway. The Land Registry maps available online confirms that, while the wide available space is not totally continuous, it is extensive.
Of course, a greenway will not fit in everywhere alongside tracks. In those cases, when the case for the railway to be reopened is successful in the future, the greenway can be diverted around pinch points.
A compromise solution might be to build the greenway to the side of the wider sections and, for now, use the centre of the narrower sections with the clear condition that the use of the land be given back to Irish Rail when/if the railway is ready to be opened.
The boundary is hard to see in some cases because the alignment is so wide:
“Ripping up the [unusable] railway infrastructure” is needed for a greenway or railway
Cllr Declan Bree (independent) recently linked to the greenway consultation on his Facebook page and referred to the often-referenced idea that greenways on old railway alignments involve “ripping up” the rails. It’s an emotive phrase.
He said: “It’s time to re-open the Sligo to Galway rail line. Some people (including Election candidates Marian Harkin, Marie Casserly and Frank Feighan) want to rip up the railway infrastructure and replace it with a bicycle track/greenway. It’s now time to send out the message that any bicycle track/greenway must be constructed a safe distance from the Rail Corridor.”
The thing is, there is no usable railway infrastructure on the Western Railway Corridor.
You can drive clearance vehicles with both railway and road/off-road wheels along parts of the old tracks. But there’s no infrastructure that could be reused if the railway were reinstated.
The Limerick to Foynes railway reinstatement project shows that in a very clear way — before tracks and sleepers are replaced, significant groundworks are needed including the replacement of the railway ballast (the stones which the tracks sit on). You can see the extent of the work on drone footage on YouTube.
Western Railway Corridor north of Claremorris is a different beast to that south of the town
The remaining section of the disused Western Railway Corridor is often split into two sections — from Collooney to Claremorris and from Claremorris to Athenry.
Collooney is where the corridor meets the Sligo-Dublin mainline, Claremorris is where the route meets the Mayo-Dublin mainline, and Athenry is where it meets the Galway-Dublin line. Claremorris is roughly halfway through the disused section of the line.
One of the reasons why the Galway to Mayo section of the route might be opened in the short term while the section north of Claremorris is unlikely to be is the huge number of level crossings on the northern section. This adds hugely to the complexity and cost of the project.
The level crossings would need to be merged (or closed and people redirected), automated with barriers or over or underpasses built. All of those options include significant extra cost.
| South of Claremorris | North of Claremorris | |
| Farm or single house crossing | 20 | 84 |
| Level crossing of public road | 19 | 46 |
| Over/underpasses | 22 | 17 |
To be extra clear: The railway alignment is not intact, and it is at risk from encroachment
I’m not going to publish photos of the driveways across the railway, but even if the rails were intact (which is not the case), there are significant barriers across the railway. The railway has been paved over by both councils along the route and private landowners at some level crossings.
Fences have been put up, some sections are being used for grazing in a planned way (on the railway and not just leakage from fields), and some minor structures have been built over the route.
The pretence that it is an intact railway without encroachment is strange.
It’s time now open this section of railway from collooney to claremorris just think all towns along this route would benifet from line reopening
Surely you don’t believe a freight train will stop at every town and village along the route?
Instead of snail mail we’d have snail rail.
The route north of claremorris will jot even be looked at before 2050, if you examine the All-Ireland rail review. With the cost of the navan-clonee route put at 3 billion for 40 km, what chance has a railway in a part of the country with a fifth of the population density? We are talking abou fifty years hence, at best.
But we own the asset, and a greenway protects the asset. A greenway will not impact on any decision to build a railway, the license sees to that. So people like Bree are just blocking investment in the region, and they are not making an iota of difference to the railway argument.
People are apparently ok with fool me once, fool me twice, fool me thrice, etc.
Galway East TD Sean Canney campaigned for reopening the railway in three successive elections and his deluded supporters are still waiting for their promised rail service.
Some people never learn.
open the greenway now , if the railway ever comes deal with it then
100% fed up with these naysayers trying to stop investment in the north west
Its their way or the highway Brendan, or as they’re known for chanting “greenway, no way”.
If Enda Kenny and Eamonn Ryan couldn’t give them a railway then Declan Bree, Sean Canney and Gerry Murray definitely can’t.
But at least Enda and Eamonn didn’t try to stop a greenway.
That’s the obvious thing to do Ray but greenway begrudgers are relentless in their efforts to block a greenway at any cost.
Ms Reece Witherspoon Stars in the Film “Legally Blond”. Mutatis Mutandis. It is indeed Legally Blond to Re-Instate the Western Railway Corridor. Appropriate Use of the Apple Tax Bounty to Develop Famine Graveyard effectively. IFA Connaught.
That would be a scandalous waste of Public money as well as a folly.
There are no plans in place to carry passengers on that railway.
All taxes from the multinationals, based in Ireland for tax purposes, should be treated in the same way Norway treats its income from gas and oil.
I am a railway fan for almost 70 years – but I don’t fancy rebuilding a railway that would probably close down again for lack of usage. The only viable new railway I could envision would be a direct link to Dublin airport, enabling direct trains from the West of Ireland.
And on a personal level, as I live just 1/2 mile form the ‘disused western rail corridor’, or 2 miles from any future rail station: How often would I use a Greenway? Around once per week. How often would I use a railway there? Perhaps once a year.