Tuam will see bike come down track before train, says transport chairman

By TONY GALVIN A RIFT is appearing at County Hall between those in favour of reopening the Athenry-Tuam rail line and the chairman of the county's transport committee who has stated that it's now more likely we will see a bike rather than a train coming into Tuam station. The issue has arisen following the dumping of a proposal submitted by community group Energise Tuam to County Hall, to use the disused rail line as a greenway cycle and walking route that would attract visitors to the area.[private] The Tuam group has expressed anger that their proposal was simply dumped by officials and that they were not informed of this at any stage. At Monday's meeting of Galway Co Council, senior engineer Liam Gavin told members that the Energise Tuam suggestion to transform a section of the old railway line which once serviced Tuam into a greenway had been excluded from the draft County Walking and Cycling Strategy Report in order to protect the rail line and preserve it for future development as a rail corridor. Liam Gavin made his comments while discussing the progress of the planned Clifden to Oughterard Greenway, which will follow the route of a disused rail line. The project is modelled on the very successful development of a disused rail line between Westport and Achill. The Connemara project is now at planning permission stage but concern was raised at Monday's meeting that objections were likely. Chairman of the council's transport committee, Cllr Jimmy McClearn stated bluntly that if Connemara didn't want the funding which is now available for their greenway project, then East Galway would be ready and willing to take it up. He suggested a greenway could be constructed on the Galway shores of Lough Derg, along the O'Sullivan Beara walking route, and that the disused Tuam rail line might be put to better use as a greenway for cyclists. It would be more likely that funding could be attracted for such a tourist-related project than for a rail line of questionable value. Speaking to The Herald, Cllr McClearn said we are a lot more likely to see a bike than a train on this section of line and he would prefer to see a more realistic approach taken to the utilisation of this resource. He added that he could see where the proponents of the reopening of the rail line between Athenry and Tuam and on into Mayo were coming from, but it was now time to compare the aspiration with what could actually be done. A strong supporter of the reopening of the Tuam line, Athenry-based Cllr Peter Feeney said in a statement: 'The Tuam-Athenry section of the Western Rail Corridor has recently been the subject of an engineering review and costings within Irish Rail, which reflects the status of the line in the recent AECON report which reviewed Irish Rail and made proposals for its future development to 2030. 'The AECOM report identifies the Tuam-Athenry section of the WRC as the only section of unused line in the rail system which warrants consideration for reopening.' Cllr Feeney and Cllr Michael Connolly from Moylough have acknowledged that they were behind the move to have Energise Tuam's greenway proposal eliminated from even consideration for inclusion in the County Walking and Cycling Strategy Report. Cllr Connolly told The Tuam Herald that if the Energise Tuam greenway proposal was to be even accepted for consideration, it would kill the rail corridor argument. 'We can't say two different things. The rail corridor is council policy and that's it,' he said. Cllr Connolly added that the cost of reopening the Athenry-Tuam line had been revised down from €58 million to €38 million only last week, and that he was optimistic that the line would be used for trains, not bikes, in the future.[/private]