Category: Greenways

I wish there was some non railway IH news to report, but there isn’t so it is another railway post!

Wicklow County Council are apparently carrying out surveys for a greenway along the entire Woodenbridge to Shillelagh trackbed – a very small part of which near Tinahely is a walkway (co-incidentally, I was there yesterday).

It will be interesting to see how the home owners at Tinahely will take this – one of these (the old goods store) won an award for the conversion of the building to a house a few years ago but such was their concern for privacy, the location of the house was unstated (I was able to figure it out). The station building is also now a private residence.

Separately, I see the car dealership that was in the goods store at Aughrim (another former station on this route) is now closed. As it is not generating rates income for Wicklow County Council, maybe they should see about buying the site/building, using the trackbed for the greenway and granting themselves planning permission for conversion of the goods store to a house, a la Tinahely. This would enhance the value of the building to be sold on to a third party.

Euronews have an article about greenways in Ireland. One of the routes mentioned is the Great Western Greenway in Mayo and how the landowners generally allowed permissive access to the land at no charge.

What is not mentioned is that this is not a long term, sustainable solution as such permission can be revoked (as has happened on occasions) if an issue arises – even if this is nothing to do with the greenway.

It also establishes a bad principle which is that individuals should give access to their property for free, in order to allow others to profit from the provision of services to those who turn up to use it. Just as the principle that the polluter pays is now accepted, the principle that those who benefit from a public good should pay for it, needs to become established.

Another post about railways – just the way the news is flowing!

I missed this when it happened in March but it is worth noting. Wexford County Council apparently had plans to seek to convert the closed South Wexford line to a greenway but have now abandoned these and are instead considering a possible greenway along the abandoned Macmine Junction to New Ross route, where it would continue into the already approved New Ross to Waterford greenway.

IndustrialHeritageIreland welcomes both decisions.

DonegalDaily.com report that Donegal County Council have tarred a 2km section of the railway walk from Burtonport to Meenbannad, greatly improving this amenity.

The Irish Independent reports on the reopening of the greenway along the former North Kerry line in Limerick, referring to it as previously being known as the “Great Southern Greenway” (sic).

This doesn’t do justice to those behind the former Great Southern Trail, who championed (and delivered) the idea of what we now call greenways long before anyone in Ireland knew what that term meant.

Further south, there appears to be little movement on the section of line in Kerry nor on the Fenit branch.

Another day, another greenway proposal for something that won’t be useable unless you live within 5km of it and have an appropriate social credit score.

Per the Leitrim Observer, Leitrim County Council have issued a tender for the design and preliminary route selection of a greenway on the former Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway trackbed.

The article contains a prime example of the inability of the MSM to actually get their facts correct (and they wonder why the MSM is in financial difficulty?). It claims that:

The simplicity of using the closed railway route is that the route is used on license from Irish Rail if it is ever needed for a new railway in the future.

I obviously missed the bit in Irish railway history where the SL&NCR was bought by GSR/CIE, thereby giving them the trackbed. The last time I checked, the SL&NCR, being a cross border railway, was excluded from the merger of all railway companies wholly within the Free State in the 1920s and it continued on as an independent concern until the Government of Northern Ireland closed the connecting line through Enniskillen by fiat, thereby rendering the SL&NCR economically defunct.

Now 1 year into the “new normal” of ‘flatten the curve’, our benevolent overlords are spaffing more money on projects that the majority of the population cannot use as Ireland continues to be an open air prison.

This time, the regime has announced the Royal Canal Greenway from Maynooth, Co. Kildare to Clondara in Co. Longford. Interestingly, as the majority of tax revenue is generated in Dublin, the people of Dublin are paying for this project but will not benefit from it as it is more than 5km away from Dublin.

RTE reports that An Bord Pleanála has approved the plans for the greenway along the bulk of the trackbed of the former Farranfore to Valentia Harbour railway in Kerry and associated compulsory purchase orders.

One wonders what the point of a greenway in a lockdown State is.