Government under added pressure to restore Cork rail line

Further pressure is to be heaped on the Government to restore the Midleton to Youghal rail link by Cork County Council, which will insist on putting the reopening of the line firmly on the agenda of the All-Ireland Strategic Rail Review.

The council will also demand that the project progress by having it added to reviews of the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (Cmats) and the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) for the southern region.

In addition, the local authority is seeking the government to provide it with latitude to alter its new County Development Plan (CDP) to accommodate for rezoning of land for train stations and ancillary services needed along the route.

Councillors representing the East Cork Municipal District Council, which covers the entire length of the former railway line, have voted unanimously to seek full council approval to pass a formal motion shortly on these motions which will then be sent to minister for transport Darragh O’Brien.

A formal motion for this enablement was tabled at a meeting of the East Cork Municipal District Council by Midleton-based Fianna Fáil councillor Ann Marie Ahern.

She said it is clear that traffic gridlock along the N25 main Cork to Waterford road is only going to get worse as thousands more houses are developed in the East Cork region.

Ms Ahern said the only way to reduce this is with sustainable transport and the reopening of the railway line which would then connect Youghal with Cork city is the optimum way to get cars off the already choked roads.

Mayor of County Cork, Independent councillor Mary Linehan-Foley, who lives in Youghal, said the connection reinstatement “is needed and it has to be done”.

SUPPORT

Both councillors have received unanimous cross-party support from their colleagues.

Council officials are to formally pass this onto their corporate affairs department and the section dealing with Community, Tourism, and Rural Development.

It will then be rubberstamped by them to go to a full council meeting in County Hall for official ratification.

Junior minister for transport Seán Canney recently hinted in the Dáil that the reinstatement of the line, which closed in 1982, could be put on the agenda of the Cmats review, but added it is not in the national review at present.

The former rail corridor has been developed into a greenway. However, senior Irish Rail official AJ Cronin has said there is enough width left on it to enable a light rail or rapid bus transit corridor to be accommodated.

He’s gone on record as saying he and his project team would have no problem constructing the link if they were provided with the money by government.