European support could be key for rail project

The recent visit by members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI) to the west of Ireland is a salient reminder of the role Europe can play in our development and, indeed, wishes to play.

The delegation was hosted by Midlands North West MEPs Ciarán Mullooly and Maria Walsh – themselves both members of the committee – and was led by the vice-chair of REGI, Ľubica Karvašová, from Slovakia, and also included MEPs Raul De La Hoz Quintano, from Spain, and Paulo Roberto Do Nascimento Cabral, from Portugal.

On their three-and-a-half day tour of our region, the delegation visited Athenry to hear from West on Track on the need for the reopening of the Western Rail Corridor from Athenry to Sligo as well as visits to Galway Port, ATU Mountbellew, and Carrownagappul Bog, outside Mountbellew, in addition to a tour of the broader Midlands region.

The support of the MEPs for the reopening of the Western Rail Corridor, not just to Tuam and Claremorris but northwards to Sligo, was very apparent after meetings and a visit to Oranmore Train Station, which was developed due to the demand created by the reopening of the Western Rail Corridor from Limerick to Athenry.

Their comments are instructive on the importance most European countries and the EU as a whole place on regional development, compared to Ireland.

“Rail infrastructure is the backbone of regional development," MEP Karvašová said. “And the timing of the visit is crucial because the Parliament will be formulating its budgets over the next few months, for the next cohesion policy.

“If the European Union wants to be competitive on the world stage, it all starts at local level. The railway will be an enabler for proper regional development. We found the visit very informative and we will report to the Parliament and its committees and support the proposal to fund the project.” 

Portuguese MEP Paulo Roberto do Nascimento Cabral said extending the Western Rail Corridor to Sligo would be a crucial development for the north-west region of Ireland.

“The rail project will establish enterprise opportunities and will speed up the delivery of progress to the region,” he said.

“It will help retain qualified young people in the region. This project is an excellent example of what needs to be delivered to connect all of Europe. This comprehensive approach will create jobs. The north Atlantic face of Europe is strategically very important for the integral operation of the European Union. Connectivity to the ports is vital too,” MEP do Nascimento Cabral added.

Galway county councillor Peter Feeney, a member of West On Track, highlighted the need for balanced regional development and the potential use of European funding to help make the full reopening of the Western Rail Corridor (Sligo to Limerick) a reality.

“If transport infrastructure is not upgraded, the northern and western region will continue to lag even further behind the more developed Eastern and Southern regions,” said Cllr Feeney.

“For example, there are more students between Galway and Sligo today than in all of Ireland 40 years ago, but there is currently no rail connectivity for students along the entire 258km route from ATU Letterkenny to ATU Galway.” 

The importance of the corridor for freight for industry was also stressed.

MEPs for this region, Maria Walsh and Ciarán Mullooly, also expressed full support for the extension of the rail line from Galway to Sligo.

Maria Walsh said that this was the kind of project that fitted exactly with the committee’s brief. She was confident that the next phase of the railway would be getting underway shortly and that it made sense that planning for its continuation to Sligo should also be happening.

Stressing the urgency of enhanced regional development, Ciarán Mullooly expressed his full support for the extension of the rail link from Galway to Sligo and said that the EU can be critical in its delivery. This was why they had invited the visiting delegation to come to the west to see the situation for themselves.

“It’s essential that after 20 years of work and advocacy, we see this rail line completed within the next decade. People need this vital infrastructure in place,” said Mullooly afterwards.

“I was very impressed with the response from my European colleagues regarding this much-needed development of the rail line.

“With their vast experience in rail infrastructure projects in countries like Spain, Portugal, and Slovakia, it is heartening that they have pledged their full support for these proposals,” he added.

It is a timely boost for the campaign to reopen the Western Rail Corridor all the way to Sligo. While the reopening from Athenry to Tuam and Claremorris is all but assured, the extension from there to Sligo is not as far, literally, down the tracks.

But the logic of connecting the two largest urban centres in Connacht via rail is very obvious, especially so when the original tracks and route remain in situ. Indeed, one might ask the question about the incredibly short-sighted decision to close the line in 1977.

Then there is the slow pace at which the Government has moved in terms of reopening a line that can greatly help a region currently ranked by the European Union as being ‘a lagging region’, a region which ranks 218th out of 234 European regions for transport infrastructure development.

The responsibility still rests squarely with the Irish Government who, if they decide to go ahead with the project, can then request EU funding support.

The Western Rail Corridor can avail of European Union financial support through the Trans European Network – Transport (TEN-T) Comprehensive Fund. Of course, it was denied access to the much greater funding tranche that is the TEN-T Core Fund when then Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar removed the Western Arc from the Core funding map in 2011.

The Western Arc ran from Cork to Belfast via Limerick, Galway, Sligo and Derry. Areas on the Core network have access to multi-billion euro European support for road, rail and aviation.

The stroke of Varadkar’s pen confirmed the long-standing Dublin-centric approach by the Irish Government with the vast majority of the Core network in Ireland now entirely radiating to and from Dublin.

Is it any wonder we’re in a ‘lagging region’? It doesn’t have to be like that.