Confusion over rail
link
By - Editorial.
THE extraordinary confusion sowed by Iarnród
Éireann (Irish Rail) last week concerning the
viability of reopening passenger rail services between
Navan and Dublin has taken a further twist this week as
it has been revealed that the senior manager who told
Meath County Councillors the route was not financially
viable has been removed from his post.
Transport 21 project manager with Iarnród
Éireann, Tom Finn, has been removed from his post
following controversial comments made to Meath County
Councillors last week about the planned rail line between
Navan and Dunboyne not being economically viable and that
"financially, you would not touch it with a barge pole
because of the costs". The remarks are understood to have
infuriated senior management at the State rail
company.
Iarnród Éireann has, however, delivered an
upbeat assessment this week of the planned project to
reopen the rail link, contradicting the statement made to
councillors last week, and indicating that is financially
viable and that this was the only criterion that mattered
when evaluating transport projects.
This project is a crucial plank in this county`s future
transport infrastructure designed to take thousands of
commuters off the roads each day and deliver them in
relative comfort to their jobs in the city and deposit
them home again each evening. Living in Meath and working
in Dublin would be made so much easier by the
reintroduction of rail services between Navan and Dublin,
but it is widely felt that the target date of 2015 is too
long for commuters to wait. It does appear there may now
be potential to deliver the project two years earlier, in
2013.
It is obvious to everyone who wants to see this project
get underway that an eight-year time horizon is much too
conservative, particularly when, in 1859, it took only
three years to clear and build the 26-mile track to
Dublin by hand with picks and shovels. With 21st. century
equipment and modern-track-laying technology at its
disposal, it should be eminently possible to reconstruct
the line in a shorter timeframe than 2015, especially as
the emerging preferred route, according to Iarnród
Éireann`s scooping study, is along the existing
alignment, with a few minor deviations.
There now seems to be no doubt that this railway project
is economically viable. Passenger services will cost
€6.8 million per annum to run and this cost can be
met entirely by revenue generated on the new line.
Meath On Track says that modelling based on 85 per cent
of population growth expected in the catchment area of
the service and utilising demand from comparable
population centres on the Dublin-Belfast line means the
service could be up and running within five years.
Welcome also in the recent study is the plan for a
station and park `n` ride facility at Dunshaughlin,
beside the town`s M3 interchange, and two stations in
Navan - Navan Central at the rear of Pairc Tailteann and
Navan North on the Kells Road, which can cater for
commuters from north Meath. A further welcome aspect of
the scooping study is the plan to build double track
rather than a single commuter line which, it was felt,
would have too many operational challenges.
So the Government`s commitment is there and so now, it
appears, is Iarnród Éireann`s. The key
signal for this vital transport initiative, however, is
still awaited from the Department of Finance and that is
that the capital costs of almost €580 million will
be made available.
The dark economic clouds gathering on the horizon must
not be used as an excuse to put this project on the back
burner and there must be no let up in the Dept. of
Transport`s commitment to see this project through to
completion in an effort to tackle once and for all the
substantial public transport deficit from which Meath
continues to suffer.
© The Meath Chronicle, 19th. January 2007.
Related Articles:
Navan rail line 100% certain, - says Dempsey.
€578m rail line to Navan "Not financially
viable".
M3
Will Kill Navan Rail Link.
Iarnród Éireann outlines Navan railway
route.
Route of Navan-Dublin rail line to be outlined "within
weeks".
