Western Rail Corridor remains on track

THE West-On-Track lobby group has staunchly defended the feasibility and viability of the Western Rail Corridor after a government-commissioned report suggested this week that the project was “largely speculative.”Spokesperson for the group, Colmán Ó Raghallaigh said he was not concerned by the content of the report as it was based entirely on “guesswork” and had used the “lowest common denominator” to paint a pessimistic picture of the viability of the project.The report, which was carried out by Steer Davies Gleave (SDG) questions many of the original arguments that were put forward in favour of reopening the rail corridor from Ennis to Collooney in Sligo - and significantly, it predicts the service will lose €2.4million every year once it opens to the public.Responding to the report, Mr Ó’Raghallaigh said his group paid little attention to reports of that nature as academics and economists in Dublin had been questioning the need for such infrastructure in the western region from the outset.“It postulates that the Western Rail Corridor – Phase One – will require a major subsidy from government in order to stay afloat. Nobody can guess at that – it will all depend on the number of people who will use the service and we envisage that there will be a significant demand.”“This document is purely...