Roughly half of those traveling Ennis Limerick travel onwards towards Dublin, thats a very telling trend
The legisaltive proceedures on a new railway line would mean it would take upwards of 7 years from today with a clean sheet to get outline approval from the DoT, select three routes (as required) do the consultation get the EIS, submit the draft order survive the public inquiry do the detailed design, enact the CPO, and start digging. Of course you will not get that far since you hit a problem at the public inquiry since the original route will be the only choice since that inquiry considers the feasibilty of the works and all reasonable alternatives i.e. the do nothing case
If you have a preexisting route which is open you don't need a works order or any other red tape and you can start tomorrow for a fraction of the cost
In light of Athenry's status as a intercity station and a junction station to the section to Tuam it makes total sense to stick with the original alignment from Ennis since its fairly decent and lacks the level crossings and gradients that you find north of Tuam
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