In Reply to: Re: Stop Knock's 500,000 too posted by Dawood on November 12, 2005 at 01:47:40:

It's interesting about the dispersed pattern of living. In the 1980s the number of abandoned houses in the west was particularly noticeable - not just old houses but new houses built probably in the 1970s. The people that may be flying in for holidays now to Knock perhaps. The vulnerability of people living in remote houses - or even small villages - at long distances from their place of work to rising oil prices is quite scary in my view. When putting petrol in the tank starts to match the cost of mortgages or child care they will become totally unviable. The exodus to Dublin will continue. The availability of rapid transit to Galway/Sligo/Castlebar or other centres with critical mass is a blindingly obvious solution to an inevitable problem. Even if they plant the whole of the west of Ireland with biofuel, the cost of putting it in your tank will follow the world price of oil which has doubled in the last couple of years. A rail line down the west coast makes a lot of sense as a security measure to help maintain the future viability of the west - rural and urban.