Minister's warning on reopening rail corridor

The Western Rail Corridor will only be reopened if it provides value-for-money, Transport Minister Seamus Brennan warned today.

Mr Brennan said the project would be rigorously assessed in a bid to test whether there was a strong case to justify the long-term major investment of taxpayers’ money.

He told the first meeting of an expert working group it would have to examine the costs and benefits of opening a rail link between Sligo, Galway, Limerick and Cork and towns along the now largely abandoned railway route.

The minister said the working group has been charged with examining and evaluating all aspects of the Western Rail Corridor proposal, including the demand and how the project would be funded.

“This Government is committed to working with the regions to develop infrastructure that fits in particularly well with the aims of the National Spatial Strategy,” he said.

“The Strategic Rail Review did not include the Western Rail Corridor in its list of projects recommended for invest. I declined to accept that finding as final.

“The future of the Western Rail Corridor is very much on my agenda. I believe it warrants a longer and harder look. I am committed to a policy of rebalancing the west coast with the east coast.

“In achieving this, the Western Rail Corridor can play a central strategic role. If the Western Rail Corridor is to be part of the now expanding rail system then the members of this working group must evaluate and prove the case.”

Minister Brennan said it was time for realism, honesty and straight-talking.

“This line will not get built purely on sentiment or emotion,” he said.

“The reality is that if the re-opening of the line is going to happen then all of us have to come at it in a hard-headed, practical way.

“It will be the task of this Working Group to rigorously assess all aspects of the proposal.

“At one level the capital cost of re-opening sections of the corridor is the issue. At another level there is the whole issue of the level of annual subvention that may be required year after year.

“The possible re-opening of sections of the line must also be rigorously assessed and justified in the context of the whole motorway development.”