OPINION: Rail Review has serious implications northern and western region

IRELAND entered the 20th century with one of the most extensive rail networks in the world. From that peak, it slowly decayed, starting with closures of peripheral routes (Westport-Achill; Galway-Clifden), accelerating with massive closures from the 1950s, and ending up today, a pale shadow of its former glory. 

The All Island Strategic Rail Review (AISRR) published last week sets out recommendations to change this. By 2050 it envisages an all island rail network that restores some closed lines, builds some new lines, and makes a wide range of other improvements to existing tracks and railway efficiency. This Damascene conversion is to be welcomed.

Some background to the emergence of the AISRR is necessary. In 2019 Minister Ryan paid €350,000 to consultants EY for a report that concluded there was absolutely no viable business case for restoring the disused rail line linking Athenry and Claremorris. The subsequent evisceration of the EY report by West-on-Track was never acknowledged by the Minister (full disclosure: this author was involved in the WoT work).

In 2021 the same Minister paid €1.3 million to consultants Arup to carry out the all-Ireland strategic rail review and they found that the Athenry-Claremorris restoration was economically justified. So what changed between 2019 and 2023?

Key factor

A key factor is that the government has been so tardy in moving the economy towards lower CO2 emissions arising from road transport that they risk incurring large EC penalties for failing to reach legally binding CO2 reductions by 2030. Business enterprises have already started to act in the absence of government leadership. Baxter in Castlebar is in the vanguard and is moving their weekly road freight of 80 containers to rail, initially from Ballina freight port, but soon using a new loading facility at Castlebar. Other enterprises are following.

There is increasing popular demand for better and more integrated public transport to link major cities and densely populated east and south coast regions as well recognition that rail could play a galvanising role in stimulating the green economy of the peripheral North-West. As a general election approaches, this last point has become politically important in Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. 

The cost of delivering the 2050 rail network vision is in the range €20 to €32 billion.  The AISRR estimated cost of restoring Athenry-Claremorris (just for freight, not passengers) is between €400 to €600 million, ie, less than 2 per cent of the island-wide total. A more accurate costing reduces this to less than 1 percent. However beneficial the 2050 rail vision might be for the island as a whole, the fact that almost all of costs for the island will be incurred outside the N&W region should make us focus on the actual restoration of the vital missing Athenry-Claremorris rail link.  This is where Mayo and Galway have real skin in the game. 

Lack of urgency

THERE is a disturbing lack of urgency in the manner in which the Athenry-Claremorris restoration is treated in the AISRR and accompanying memo to Cabinet.  When government Ministers say 'now', they mean 'soon'. 'Soon' has a habit of mutating into 'later', and 'later' into 'never'.   The cabinet memo makes no time commitments to start track restoration. There are no financial allocations to any of its recommendations. 

Recommendations, however admirable, are not actions. Recall the fate of the full Limerick-Sligo restoration proposed by the late Seamus Brennan in the early noughties. Ennis-Athenry was restored and is a great success. The rest was cancelled because of the 2008-10 recession.

Even more worrying is that there is another disused rail link running from Claremorris to Collooney/Sligo, completing the Atlantic Rail Corridor from Waterford to Sligo.  How is its restoration treated in the AISRR? It is never mentioned and appears to have vanished! However, they considered building a 'new' Claremorris-Collooney line, but then rejected the idea. Even more puzzling is that the AISRR briefly entertained the possibility of building a new rail link between Sligo and Ballina before dismissing it on grounds of high cost and low likely usage. Arup appear to be confused as to the real situation on the ground.

As I listen to our local politicians welcome the AISRR and the recommendation sop it has thrown to the N&W region, I note that this is not to be included in any immediate revision of the current National Development Plan that sets out actual investment decisions and funding to beyond 2030.  'Extra' funding would be required to restore the Athenry-Claremorris link and will be bitterly fought over with competing demands from other Ministries and national agencies.  The result is likely to be long delays for any real action. And should the economy suffer future recessions that require expenditure cuts, we all know where the public investment cutbacks will start.