Category: Greenways

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Greenways IH News 2025

The ignorance is strong on this one

I could see this one coming a mile away (even if the track it was on is not straight!). Two separate groups in two separate parts of the country calling for the restoration of rail services on lines that have been converted to greenways.

The first in Westmeath with Westmeath County Councillors have called for the railway from Mullingar to Athlone to be re-opened.

That would be the one that is now a greenway.

Similarly in Cork, a group calling themselves the East Cork Rail Alliance are calling for restoration of rail services to Youghal, the line from Midleton to Youghal now also a greenway.

Dear boys and girls, once a greenway, never a railway.

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Greenways

Tralee Fenit Greenway

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?

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Greenways IH News 2025

Newtownards to Bangor Greenway

Another day, another greenway. This time in Co. Down, from Newtownards to Bangor.

At first the headline on insidermedia.com had me confused, stating:

“Construction starts on £5.6m Newtownards to Bangor Greenway – will utilise former railway track”.

Was there a heretofore unrecorded railway line from Newtownards to Bangor? A quick look at my own gazetteer enlightened me. The plan is to use the trackbed from Newtownards to Conlig (also known as Whitespots) and head across country from there to Bangor.

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General Greenways

Westport train collision

I don’t normally comment on trains, not even railway accidents (although technically they do constitute railway history). However, this news item got me thinking about Westport and suggestions for a change.

TLDR, there is actually freight handled at Westport station, specifically timber trains. These are loaded in the old goods area. Not a large area to start with, it was inevitable that something like this would happen eventually.

Map Copyright OpenStreetMap – https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

Looking at the map above, the greyed out section of track is that in use for train stabling/timber loading. If this activity were to move to a dedicated loading site east of the station within Westport station limits (track circuits/axle counters could protect trains), this would free up the area west of the passenger station, allowing for the connection of the Westport to Achill greenway to that running to Westport Quay, improving the tourist amenity of Westport and segregating passenger and freight trains. I have added a line in blue to the map above, showing how the 2 greenways could be connected.

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Greenways

Midleton – Youghal Greenway

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.

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Greenways History

Comber Greenway

Long before greenways were a thing, the former Belfast & County Down Railway trackbed from Belfast to Comber was one. Despite being one of the oldest such greenways, it is only today that I managed to travel it.

I took myself and my bike up to Belfast on the train yesterday, overnighted in Belfast and this morning, cycled from Belfast to Comber and back on the greenway. This is located primarily on the route of the former railway, with some deviations where housing has been built on the line.

I was surprised by the presence of mini hills on the route as generally, railways rose and fell at minimal gradients, however, my legs got a workout this morning due to this (I don’t have an electric bike).

All photos taken at the station sites are now online, however, there is not a lot to show as most stations have disappeared, with little trace remaining.

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Greenways

Once a greenway, never a railway

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.

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Greenways IH News 2023

Proposed greenway in Cork

The Irish Examiner (soft paywall) reports that Cork City Councillors have approved Part 8 planning (process for a local authority to grant itself planning permission) for a greenway on part of the former CB&SCR trackbed between the Kinsale Road roundabout and Chetwynd Reservoir (east of the former, the trackbed is now a road).

The map below (extract from Openstreetmap and licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License) shows the location, to which I have added a rough line of the route in red.

Proposed greenway – Kinsale Road roundabout to Chetwynd Reservoir, Cork City
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Greenways IH News 2023

The Big Bad Greenway is coming

Cry me a river. Agriland.ie reports on the “concerns” of a farmer in Cork about the possible building of a greenway along the former railway route from Mallow to Dungarvan.

Complaints about farms being split have no merit – when there was a railway there (up until 1967), any farm was split and had to move livestock etc across an operational railway. Doing the same across a greenway is far less hassle as people/bikes can stop in a shorter timeframe than a moving train. The specific farm in question only acquired the route in 1982 – what did they do pre-1982?

The usual objections that arise around any other infrastructure project are also trotted out – pollution and in this case, the effects on freshwater pearl mussels. So, build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything (BANANA).

I’m sure if the farmer wanted to build a one off house in the countryside, they would not have any concerns about pollution or anything else for that matter.

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Greenways IH News 2023

Phase 2 of the Passage Railway Greenway Improvement Scheme

A public consultation into plans by Cork City Council to upgrade the existing greenway from Cork to Rochestown and build an extension to the Cork City boundary commences on 26th January 2023 and runs to March 10 2023.