In Reply to: Re: How much money did the N5 make last year? posted by me me on November 11, 2005 at 16:10:42:

I think the answer to your question ‘why can’t we have a Sligo to Cork line’ is in your post. It’s a matter of priorities, and, from your example, upgrading the Westport Dublin service is of more use. If rail is truly a driver of growth, then the sensible thing would be to concentrate development around the existing rail lines.

But a more pertinent question would be ‘why can’t we just accept that rail won’t have much of a role to play in the West until we move away from a dispersed settlement pattern’. Just because the East has a need for more rail doesn’t mean the West has any need at all. And the Western Development Commission explicitly recognise that commuting times in the West are far shorter that in Dublin, suggesting there simply isn’t much of a transport problem.

Unlike, say, Cork Midleton, there has been no positive cost benefit analysis of the WRC. Instead, on two occasions, expert groups have concluded it really doesn’t have much to offer. No-one benefits from wasting money relaying a track so that empty railcars can roll out of Claremorris heading for Galway.

A service with no passengers does nothing to combat climate change, reduce oil dependence, promote the spatial strategy or drive economic growth. It is being done for purely political reasons, and its just a damn shame that money is being wasted when there are useful purposes to which it could be put.