Minister urged to endorse Nenagh transport hub

A top level local delegation met with the Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan this week to press for funds to develop an integrated transport hub at Nenagh Railway Station - a move that would take traffic-blocking bus stops off the streets of the town centre.

The meeting involving the Chief Executive Officer of Tipperary County Council, Joe MacGrath, and the council's Director in the Nenagh Municipal District, Marcus O' Connor, comes just days after representatives of the North Tipperary Rail Partnership urged the council to give its full backing to their campaign to substantially upgrade the local rail line.

Mr O' Connor, who was speaking at last Thursday's meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District authority, said the council delegation meeting the minister would be urging Mr Ryan to provide funding for a hub that would cater for bus and rail travel, and where the existing car park would be fitted out with charging points for electric vehicles.

The kind of hub the council was seeking had already been successfully rolled out across cities and towns throughout Europe. The station in Nenagh was ideal for such a facility because it was centrally located, said Mr O' Connor.

RAIL UPGRADE

Attending last Thursday's meeting were Virginia O' Dowd and Edward Kelly, members of the North Tipperary Partnership, who updated councillors and officials on the progress made to improve the Limerick to Ballybrophy line and their campaign to secure funding to modernise the network.

Ms O' Dowd, a member of the partnership for the past 17 years, said their campaign had almost shifted from one where they were calling for the line not be be close down to one now where they were calling for further works to improve the line.

She conceded that the line was not properly utilised, but said greater use by commuters and further investment by the government would result in paybacks such as increased economic activity in the Nenagh and Limerick regions, as well as contributing to efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Ms O' Dowd said the campaign to upgrade the line was boosted by the fact that Castleconnell TD Kieran O' Donnell was the current Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, while Tipperary TD Michael Lowry was also a member of the same committee and had shown great support.

She urged councillors to foster greater links with their council counterparts in Limerick to press for further government investment in the line and for the introduction of a middle-of-the-day service, which she felt was vital to attract more commuters.

She said great pressure was already being put on the government to plough even more resources into the network. The Transport Minister was “blue in the face” from answering Oireachtas questions on the issue that were being fielded by the three TDs from North Tipperary, Alan Kelly, Jackie Cahill and Michael Lowry, while Deputy Martin Browne in the south of the county had been an advocate for the line in the Dáil also.

RAIL WORKS

Edward Kelly said the current works programme to upgrade the line was due for completion in November. This would mean that speed limits could increase from 30mph to 50mph, and it was aimed to introduce a more passenger friendly timetable.

Irish Rail was looking at re-surfacing the car park at the railway station in Cloughjordan and the creation of a new stop at Daly's Cross on the line between Nenagh and Limerick was being explored to link up with the bus network.

Mr Kelly said the partnership had received encouraging feedback in relation to its campaign to introduce a third daily service on the line in next year.

He urged councillors to support the partnership's campaign and to draw the National Transport Authority's attention to the further investment that was needed. One of the hopes was that a middle-of-the-day service be introduced on the line within a year.

Mr Kelly said a crucial development in attracting more commuters was to eliminate the 12 manual level crossings on the line, ten of which existed between Nenagh and Limerick, and have them upgraded to automatic. Such a move would result in faster journey times and a reduction to a 45-minute commute between the two centres, opening the potential to attract a lot more commuters.

“The line can be transfomed if the political will is there,” said Mr Kelly.

POLITICAL PUSH

District Cathaoirleach Cllr Hughie McGrath said he had no problem with seeking a meeting with the Castleconnell Municipal District councillors with a view to increasing political pressure for more investment and services on the line. He said he would also contact his colleague in south Tipperary, Cllr Michael Murphy, so that the issue would be promoted at EU level as Cllr Murphy was a member of the Committee of the Regions. He said creating a link between the line to the University of Limerick would be crucial.

Cllr Joe Hannigan said it was vital the manual road crossings were automated to reduce journey times, particularly between Nenagh and Limerick.

Cllr Michael O' Meara felt there was a great future for the line because of the emphasis on reducing carbon emissions.

Cllr Ger Darcy said promoting the line for the transport of goods and freight as well as commuters was important and there was significant potential in regard to this aspect.

Cllr Seamus Morris said that without the persistence of the rail partnership over almost the past two decades the rail line would now be closed.