[Colm Moore]

http://www.thepost.ie/news/ireland/c...ion-50305.html

CIE seeks €60m for unprofitable rail connection
04 July 2010 By Nicola Cooke

CIE is looking for more than €60 million to carry out the second phase of a rail connection, despite the fact that the route will be unprofitable and will require an ongoing subsidy.

The company is applying to the Department of Transport for funding for phase two of the Western Rail Corridor, a 24-kilometre stretch from Athenry to Tuam.

Engineers and other experts are currently carrying out topographical surveys of the existing line and the lands that surround it, to assess what would be required for the upgrade and how much it would cost.

CIE still owns the existing line, which was closed 30 years ago, and no railway order will be required.

When the surveys are complete, an application for funding will be made.

A CIE spokesman said the track bed and possible changes to the land on the line had to be analysed.

The section of the route would be expected to carry 65,000 passengers in its first year of operation, increasing to double that within five years.

‘‘Flooding, for example, could have changed the water tables, so that is being examined along with the condition of the track," he said. ‘‘There will be no land acquisition or railway order needed, so we expect to have the application within the next few weeks."

Noel Dempsey, the Minister for Transport, recently said he was seeking to ensure that ‘‘Iarnród Eireann would be in a position to move speedily to construction [of both phases] at the earliest possible date’’.

A new Galway-to-Limerick rail route opened last March, after the €105 million phase one section of the corridor, from Ennis to Athenry, was completed.

Under the government’s Transport 21 plan, phase two is due for completion by the end of next year, while phase three, which continues onto Claremorris, is due for completion by 2014.

When phase one opened, it was stated that the rest of the rail corridor’s completion was dependent on numbers travelling on this route.

However, it is understood that the TD for Galway West, minister Eamon O’Cuív, has lobbied for the completion of the project. The rail corridor is a significant project under the government’s ambitious €34 billion Transport 21 plan.

The project has been criticised by detractors, who believe the region does not have the critical mass of people to use the service The Sunday Business Post revealed last March that the Galway-to-Limerick line was expected to be loss-making for its first five years of operation.