Rail service on the right track

YOUR news item (June 10), on the Western Rail Corridor, states that although the Western Rail Corridor had a “creditable year” passenger numbers are “well short” of the anticipated numbers.

I believe this article gives a misleading impression and that a number of issues need to be clarified.

As mentioned in your article, Iarnród Éireann has announced that the opening of the Galway-Limerick route has generated more than a quarter of a million passengers along that route in its first year.

Indeed, since its inception in March 2010, Iarnród Éireann has been at pains to point out that Galway-Limerick is the actual route being served. There is in fact no designated “Ennis-Athenry service” because the trains are Limerick-Galway services and these towns are merely stations along that route.

Nor was there ever a campaign to open an Ennis-Athenry service.

The whole point about reconnecting the line between those towns was to provide a Galway-Limerick rail corridor and the figures released by Iarnród Éireann show that this has been a success.

The provision of additional commuter services on the line, the addition of linking services to Dublin and the construction of two new stations at Oranmore and Crusheen will certainly strengthen the performance of the line even further.

Oddly enough, these positive announcements by Iarnród Éireann were omitted from your article. The measurement of passenger numbers on the Galway-Limerick route has been a cause of ill-informed comment and misunderstanding. The so-called business case was based on the provision of seven trains in each direction per day. However, the actual number provided was five in each direction, so the “targets” were actually in abeyance even before the line opened.

The only sensible measure of the performance of the Galway-Limerick line is the numbers travelling along the entire route whether they be short-haul commuters or intercity passengers.

Regarding the cost of the line, it was surely extraordinary that a business case was drawn up for part of a proposed route particularly when a significant part of the expenditure was planned to take place outside of that section. The construction of Sixmilebridge and Oranmore stations, as well as other significant works between Galway and Athenry and Ennis-Limerick are all included in the figure of €106m mentioned in your article, yet all of these works are outside of the Ennis-Athenry section.

Nevertheless, the erroneous impression continues to be conveyed in the media and elsewhere that all of this funding has been spent on the Ennis-Athenry service. In actual fact, a considerable portion of that figure has not been spent at all yet.

The provision of additional services and new stations is a clear indication that Iarnród Éireann believes that the Galway-Limerick route will continue to grow and prosper.

Iarnród Éireann deserves to be commended for the performance of the Galway-Limerick route despite the worst economic downturn in our history.

Colmán Ó Raghallaigh

West on Track

Claremorris

Co Mayo