Re: Re: transport21

Also I haven’t really displayed an attitude: I just wondered if upgrading the wrc, a realitively inexpensive project might not look forward thinking in the future, I amn’t even sure if that’s true I just wanted to think about it without some rant about gombeens and without being accused of compromising the development of the western seaboard.

I agree there is an “attitude” against the WRC but I think it’s because the futility of it is so obvious; regional rail lines in Ireland connecting peripheral cities do not work and no advocates have ever presented any sort of case that the WRC will be anything but a failure and a waste of money. Willfully ignoring very similar existing routes like the Limerick to Rosslare/Waterford route suggests an unwillingness to actually argue or defend the whole idea behind the WRC. Why is Limerick to Rosslare such a failure and why would Galway to Sligo any different? Has Limerick to Rosslare led to any increase in “development” along it’s route or even any significant benefit for Limerick or Rosslare? The answers are obvious and it seems disengenious to suggest that everything will be different with a rail link from Sligo to Galway. We have to get real here; I’m a big fan of rail transport but it only works in certain environments. The Luas carries more passengers in two days than are carried in a whole year on the Ennis to Limerick line and that’s the most “successful” of the regional routes. Under any analysis the money spent on the WRC could find far more beneficial projects for the area but it seems the champions of this scheme believe that any money spent in the West even if completely wasted will help the region when it wont and in fact diverts resources and peoples’ energy away from potentially beneficial enterprises.