Varadkar derails €2m stop for village of 864
Earlier this year, Clare County Council gave the go-ahead for the rail stop in the village of Crusheen, 10km north of Ennis along the Western Rail Corridor.
The works are part of planned upgrading works on the under-performing €106m Rail Corridor that was opened in 2010 between Ennis and Galway.
A recent report compiled for the National Transport Authority says that existing rail timetables between Galway and Limerick are “less than satisfactory” and the current service is “slow, infrequent, and costly”.
Now, Mr Varadkar has told Irish Rail to go back to the drawing board after being informed of the €2.1m cost for the rail stop at Crusheen.
Irish Rail said the works will include the platform, track level alterations, signalling works, and equipment. The corporate communications manager of Irish Rail, Barry Kenny, said the €2.1m cost “is the going rate in such circumstances”.
In a written Dáil reply to Fianna Fáil’s transport spokesman Timmy Dooley, Mr Varadkar stated: “My department’s capital funding for rail infrastructure was reduced last year in order to support the emergency funding required for the CIE Group.
“As a result of the reduced capital funding, Irish Rail have had to re-evaluate their planned capital programme to 2016, with the priority being to protect existing assets and to maintain safety standards.
“In the context of this, I have asked Irish Rail to revisit their current proposals for Crusheen rail stop which have a construction cost of in the order of €2m and see if a lower cost alternative is feasible. It is my intention to provide for a rail stop at Crusheen.”
However, Mr Kenny said: “There is limited scope for a lower cost project for Crusheen station, as what is proposed is a very simple one-platform station.”
Mr Kenny confirmed that there are no immediate plans to proceed with the rail stop.
“Crusheen is not provided for in our 2013 capital budget and will be assessed in the context of our 2014 capital funding which will prioritise, as the minister details, maintaining safety and protection of existing assets,” he said.
Irish Rail confirmed that numbers continue to decline on the new section of the line between Ennis and Athenry. Last year, 34,200 travelled on the route, compared to 34,400 in 2011.
Passenger numbers on the new Ennis to Athenry link fell to 11,900 from the start of this year to Jun 16.
The numbers work out at just under 520 passengers per week, 75 per day, or seven passengers per service between Ennis and Athenry.
Mr Kenny said overall passenger numbers for the route from Limerick to Galway were up last year from 224,000 to 235,000.
He said passenger numbers for the year to Jun 16 are 94,000 — down from the 2012 figure of 99,000 for the equivalent period.
