This article is from page 5 of the 2006-08-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
THE fight for the reinstigation of the Western Rail Corridor could be won before the end of the month as a major Government statement on the matter is expected within the next two weeks.
The corridor, which will connect Ennis to Athenry and Galway City and eventually extend as far north as Collooney in Sligo, was approved in principal at a cabinet meeting two weeks ago.
A concrete Government announcement on the corridor is now expected before September, with the Ennis to Athenry section of the line likely to be the first to get the official green light. The corridor has been earmarked as a priority by the Government ahead of next year’s election.
The project has been gathering pace in recent times, thanks mainly to the work of pressure groups such as West on Track, culminating in a proposal to reinstigate the line being submitted to the Department of Transport by CIE in June.
“Like the rest of the country, we are just waiting to see what the Government will do next,” a spokesperson from West on Track told The Clare People yesterday. “We need to get this under construction sooner rather than later.”
Should the project get the final Government go-ahead later this month, works could begin on the line before the end of this year.
The re-opening of the Western Rail Corridor is one of the commitments made by the government under the Transport 21 programme.
The section of the track from Ennis as far as Claremorris is expected to cost in the region of €170 million, while the final section, from Claremorris to Sligo, would cost up to €200 million.
A new rail network linking Shannon Airport to a restored rail corridor has also been muted. It is expected that, on its completion, the rail corridor would cater for an initial 750 commuters a day, with this figure increasing substantially if a link to Shannon Airport was created.