Anger at €5m spend on Adare rail station

A Westmeath councillor is furious over the decision to spend €5m to get a railway station in Adare operational for the Ryder Cup – even though the plan is that the station would be open just for a week.

Cllr Denis Leonard said the reopening of Killucan station would cost €10-11m, and half of that could be from the EU.

Meanwhile, Iarnród Éireann has now to buy back the station house at Adare at four times the price it sold the structure for and has to lay a rail line from Limerick to Adare – “but we in Kinnegad, Killucan, Delvin, Castlepollard, Rochfortbridge have no right to a train station that will take us to Dublin or to Sligo for the next 40-50 years”.

In addition, he complained, Irish Rail had recently announced it had lost €50m on an IT system that can’t be used. Cllr Leonard proposed that the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad commission an independent feasibility study on Killucan station. The response from the district was not entirely positive, stating that while the council would support the reopening, “the preparation and funding of any documentation required to progress the project requires the leadership of the railway authorities”.

Cllr Leonard also called again for a meeting with Iarnród Éireann and TFI on transport in Westmeath. “At this stage, I would demand [it],” he said. “We’ve asked, pleaded, cajoled, we’ve done everything else. I think we, as a council representing 100,000 people, are entitled to demand the unelected officials, who are responsible for public transport, sit there and are accountable to us.”

Cllr David Jones supported the call, as did Cllr Emily Wallace, who was shocked by the Adare announcement. “The frustrating thing is, Irish Rail will not even acknowledge there is an issue. It is as if we don’t exist, and they do not care,” she said.

Cllr Alfie Devine pressed to have “a strongly worded letter” sent from the council telling of its support for the councillors’ position on Killucan station, while Cllr Ken Glynn said that what infuriates him is that there is always an excuse from the transport authorities on why they aren’t meeting Westmeath County Council.

“Get down here and talk to the councillors, the people that are elected by the people that actually are on the ground,” he said, adding that the Adare decision was “a kick in the gut” to all the communities around the country looking for projects.

Cllr Bill Collentine said: “Nobody has come back to us and nobody’s listening to us,” he said. Cllr Aoife Davitt said if transport was implemented properly in this country, there would be less of a housing crisis.

Also in support of the motion was the mayor, Cllr Niall Gaffney: “I don’t think anything unites this chamber quite as quickly as talking about Killucan railway station,” he said, agreeing that the council should attempt to exhaust every avenue in its bid for progress.

Director of services Deirdre Reilly said that the chief executive had promised to try to get the heads of transportation together before the summer break. “So let’s hope that happens,” she said.

Council official Mary Goldsberry told the meeting that the council has received a letter from Minister Peter Burke in relation to the reinstatement of the old Mullingar to Athlone rail line, stating that he is in support of that, and he has engaged with the current minister for transport and the Irish rail directly on the issue.