Category: Greenways

Heading back to Dublin after another greenway visit – this time, the Tralee to Fenit greenway.

Similar to the Midleton to Youghal Greenway, there are multiple sections where a deviation off the route of the former railway is required due to possession of the former trackbed by others.

As with the Youghal line, this railway had not been abandoned and the question must arise, who took their eyes off the ball in either allowing advserse possession of the line to take place, or worse, who in CIE sold the trackbed of a non-abandoned railway?

Having gotten the greenway bug, I cycled another one of Ireland’s greenways today (and yesterday), being the recently fully opened greenway from Midleton to Youghal in Co. Cork. Sections of this have been opened already, with the final section opened just before Christmas.

I headed down to Cork yesterday on the train and spent the day taking fresh photographs of the stations on the Cobh branch. This day finished with me cycling from Midleton to Youghal non stop and overnighting in Youghal.

Today saw me cycle back from Youghal to Midleton, taking photos en route. I was disappointed to see that at one former level crossing, the greenway deviates away from the railway route due to possession of the trackbed by a third party.

Given that the line has not been abandoned and technically, Irish Rail could run a train through this property, I am at a loss to understand why the greenway had to be deviated. After all, if Cork County Council could buy land to the north of the railway for an alternative route, they could have relocated this business to this alternative field.

I hope to have the photos taken on both days online by New Years Day.

Advocates of greenways argue that an advantage of ripping up railway lines and converting them to greenways will allow for a railway to be put back at some future point as a greenway will allow preservation of the alignment for such a future use.

I would argue that once a greenway, a railway is not coming back as those that make use of the greenway, especially if they have developed a business around it, will absolutely oppose the closure of the greenway to allow rail based transport to resume.

This example from Edinburgh is a case in point. Proposals to extend the tram network in Edinburgh, which involve the restriction of use of a “travel corridor” by cyclists, are being opposed due to the aforementioned restriction.