Railway Clearing House Official Map of Ireland 1918 *
The railway line from Limerick to Foynes represents the prime example of the inability of Ireland's national railway company, Irish Rail, to see the wood for the trees.
Where else in Europe would you have a railway line serving a deep sea port lying idle, because the State owned railway company sees property development, rather than running trains as its primary purpose.
Welcome to Ireland and specifically to Irish Rail. Whilst aware that Irish Rail's attitude to railway lines is to seek the closure of as many as possible by stealth, i.e, by refusing to run trains, thereby proving that the line has no economic future, what has prompted me to highlight this line is that recently Limerick County Council, the local authority through which most of this line runs, proposed listing the entire railway line as a protected structure under their County Development Plan.1
This led Irish Rail to initiate High Court proceedings to overturn the decision, in the process describing the railway as "an operational railway". The photos on subsequent pages represent photographs taken in 1997 and similar scenes more recently. Decide for yourself by clicking on each station on the map above.2
Unfortunately, the High Court agreed. However, in light of the state of the line, it is clear that CIE's solicitor perjured himself in describing the railway as "operational". Since winning their case, Irish Rail have disconnected the branch from the network by removing the points connection at Limerick Check cabin, similar to what they did at Athenry with the Western Rail Corridor. If any future freight flow occurs that could use the line, Irish Rail will block it by demanding an exorbitant amount of money, calculated on a full absorption cost accounting basis, to reconnect the line and re-equip the level crossings. Due to the de facto absence of a Government in the Republic of Ireland, civil and public servants can do what they want, perjure themselves in court and get away with it on a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' basis" and everyone suffers. My own attitude on this matter is that IR should be required to reconnect the junction from the same budget that the cost of disconnecting it was charged to (or in other words, if you can create a budget for disconnections, you can also create one for reconnections).
One day, we will become a democracy and a true Republic. Just not soon.
Notes:
1. The Local Government (Planning & Development) Act 2000 made it complusory for local authorities to list sites of special interest either on a Record of Protected Structures (individual structures) or as Architectural Conservation Areas (Hamond and McMahon - Recording and Conserving Ireland's Industrial Heritage - An Introductory Guide 2002)
2. Patrickswell, Adare, Ballingrane Junction, Askeaton and Foynes stations and Barnakyle and Ashfort level crossings are online. Other stations/features will be added shortly. Each link is to an index page for each location. On the latter, as well as links to comparison pages, there is button labelled "GALLERY" which will bring you to all photos for that location.
* The closed lines from Patrickswell to Charleville and Ballingrane Junction to Tralee have been removed from this map. Ashfort & Barnakyle level crossings have been added.
Last modified: 26th October 2008