Western rail corridor (WRC) - Capital Plan

[Thomas Morelli]

Originally Posted by ACustomer

Like Ireland, and with roughly twice the population in a similar area, the Portuguese rail network is almost entirely focused on lines radiating from the capital, and also from Porto. Where services exist between provincial cities of comparable size to Limerick and Galway (50,000+) they are generally on part of an intercity route, e.g. between Coimbra and Aveiro on the Lisbon-Porto main line. South of the Tagus river, the main cities of Faro, Evora, and Beja are all linked to Lisbon by rail, but direct connections are between them are virtually non-existent.

So, does this mean that a railway linking only a city with 100, 000 people with one that has 80, 000 is not something other European countries have?

[ACustomer]

I don't know what about other European countries. The question was asked about Portugal versus the WRC, and I thought I answered it.

[comcor]

Not wanting to get sidetracked, but there is definitely a train from Faro to Lagos as I have used it.

In many ways, it has a lot in common with the WRC. The service is infrequent and it's slower than traveling by bus.

[ACustomer]

Comcor. I agree let's not get side-tracked, but the line you mention runs along a heavily-populated coastal strip linking several large towns (Lagos, Portimao, Faro, Olhao, Tavira and Vila Real de Santo Antonio). There is no analogy with some big investment to link Limerick and Galway and the line has loads of small halts which probably account for a large proportion of its traffic.

Looking at other countries from which to draw a lesson for Ireland can be a difficult business.

[Goods]

Rail census 2014 has the data on usage though the Galway Limerick data was fairly new at that point. To my knowledge the usage has passed the estimate given before it opened. The key point is that a line like this attracts other development and helps a region grow. Dublin is growing out of proportion and the West is stagnating so such a rail line can be a multiplier. Rail is about the long term which is why it is going through a revival all over Europe except in IRE.

[Thomas Morelli]

Is the recently opened motorway likely to have a significant detriment on the usage of Ennis to Athenry?
According to Google Maps, the journey times by car have only dropped by around 5 minutes, and Citylink had already been operating express bus services from Galway to Limerick(and on to Cork) before this motorway opened, and when I consider these points, I am unsure whether the motorway is going to make the trains as good as empty or not.

[Goods]

http://ec.europa.eu/research/press/j...et_s2r-web.pdf
Rail is the longer term option that Ireland will eventually follow as is happening in the rest of Europe. The road building lobby in Ireland is sufficiently powerful still to ensure that the bulk of investment goes into roads which is why ther is an imbalance. This is the reason that you have high rise car parks at Dublin airport without a rail connection even though when the M50 was being developed it would have been easy to run a spur from either the Belfast line or the Sligo line. The western rail corridor is a vital piece of infrastructure that is owned by the state which could never be put in place today and should be developed to reconnect the west particularly to Rosslare port. Rail links to our ports have been gradually severed, the truck lobby was more influential.
Today rail links are operating from Europe to China making that option faster that the sea routes on the One Belt One Road corridors. This is the future.