The Western Rail Corridor in retrospect – The view from 2034

Looking back from the vantage point of 2034, it’s hard to believe that over 30 years have passed since the start of the campaign to promote the restoration of the then disused rail line that linked Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Mayo and Sligo.
Visionary people were part of the campaign, but the iconic figure, just as Monsignor James Horan was the iconic figure for Ireland West Airport Knock, was undoubtedly Fr Micheál Mac Gréil.
Fr Mac Gréil refused to stand idly by as the western peripheral regions of our island lagged behind and sank further into decay. His enthusiasm was infectious. His dream of a prosperous and revitalised Atlantic coast was both inspiring and daunting.
Neglect of effective regional development by Dublin-based policymakers of that era was endemic, and the task of turning it around seemed almost impossible. Short-sighted and misguided strictures of cost-benefit evaluation of investment projects for the West were routinely rolled out and always came with negative recommendations.

Hope glimmers
The first glimmer of hope came in 2004, when Minister Séamus Brennan, a native of Galway, initiated a study of the disused rail line, now referred to as the Western Rail Corridor (WRC). In 2006, restoration was ratified by Cabinet, and work commenced on Phase 1 in the autumn of that year. This required the relaying of new track between Ennis and Athenry in order to link Limerick and Galway as well as the provision of stations and other associated infrastructure both inside and outside of that section. The total cost was €106 million, and the project was delivered precisely on schedule and on budget by Iarnród Éireann.
The logic of linking Ireland’s third and fourth largest cities was compelling, even for a government that was excessively focused on the more-developed eastern and southern regions. There was a slow build-up of passengers, delayed in the aftermath of the disastrous national financial crash of 2007-2012 and later the Covid lockdowns of 2020-21, but the new Limerick-Galway link rapidly became a stunning success as people rediscovered the benefits of rail travel.

Extension to Claremorris
Extending restoration of the WRC further north from Athenry presented a more difficult challenge.
North of Galway there are no more cities until you reach Derry, a beleaguered place previously neglected by Belfast policymakers and cut off from its Donegal hinterland. Here you enter a peripheral region of scattered Mayo, Sligo and Donegal small towns and rural hinterlands from which policymakers had convinced themselves that little by way of economic dynamism was ever likely to emerge.
The decision to restore the WRC from Athenry to Claremorris came when the climate crisis started to bite in the mid-2020s. Having dragged their heels on preparations to shift transport away from road-based fossil fuels, policymakers belatedly woke up to the potential of rail, encouraged by pressure from the European Commission and clamour from businesses in the region about their need to cut transport costs and reduce carbon footprints.
The initial priority was rail freight, where the payback was immediate and tangible. But as knock-on benefits to business enterprises gathered pace, passenger rail services were restored in 2028. From Ballina, Castlebar and Westport, taking the train to the ‘big city’ no longer meant just Dublin – you could get to the City of the Tribes too. Galway prospered, and rail-based tourism – increasingly popular with foreign visitors – flowed increasingly north through Galway into Mayo rather than deflecting back to Dublin.

And on to Sligo
RISING prosperity and business activity in central and south Mayo, driven by the new rail links, contrasted with slower development of towns in north Mayo and Sligo, an issue that became important in the general elections of the late 2020s. Given the evolving success of the WRC as far as Claremorris, there seemed no reason why the WRC should not be extended to Sligo.
Further pressure had been building up due to the gradual reversal of historical migration flows from rural Ireland to Dublin as housing crises, exorbitant rents and traffic congestion in the sprawling and increasingly dysfunctional Greater Dublin region led to a desire to seek better lifestyles in smaller and more welcoming communities.
The decision to restore the Claremorris-Collooney/Sligo line was finally taken in 2030 both on its own obvious merits and because improving relationships with Northern Ireland meant that strategic transport planning could now begin to take place on a genuinely all-island basis.
Sligo town – the largest town in Mayo and Sligo, with a population over 25,000 – could now, for the first time, begin to act as a real regional growth centre for the central Northern and Western Region of the Republic and rebuild its former relationship with towns in Northern Ireland.
It’s early days yet, but there is a new buzz and growing optimism in the towns of north Mayo and Sligo. New enterprises are opening and travel to work no longer requires long road commutes. Bus connections have been reorganised to service rail stations with early-morning and late-night schedules. ‘Round Ireland by Rail’ is booming and the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ is top of European tourist destinations.
There is even talk of building a new rail link from Sligo through Donegal to Letterkenny/Derry.
But realising that dream will need a new Fr Micheál with a vision of an island prosperous and at peace with itself.

John Bradley is a former ESRI professor and has published on the island economy of Ireland, EU development policy, industrial strategy and economic modelling.