Mr. Colmán Ó Raghallaigh:

West on Track is a community-based campaign advocating for the full restoration of the western rail corridor from Limerick to Sligo. It is made up of a large and diverse membership including many community groups, chambers of commerce and local development organisations and enjoys wide support from political representatives of all parties, both at local and national level.

The western rail corridor, WRC, is the term commonly used for the line from Limerick to Sligo but traditionally, it also includes the links to the Port of Foynes and the inland port of Ballina. It forms part of an Atlantic railway corridor that runs from Rosslare all the way to Sligo.

The case for the reopening of the WRC line to serve the west and north west includes the multiple social, tourism and business benefits which would accrue from its revival. The route links three city regions, as set out in the national planning framework, namely, Galway, Limerick and Cork, four major hub towns, that is, Ballina, Sligo, Castlebar, Tuam and Ennis, as well as connecting by rail the destination town of Westport, three international airports, three universities and four institute of technology campuses which have recently been rebranded as the Atlantic technological university. It also affords the possibility of further linking northwards to Letterkenny and Derry. By any standards, therefore, the western rail corridor constitutes critical economic infrastructure.

Regional policy objectives, RPOs, 6.13(a) and 6.13(b) of the regional spatial and economic strategy published by the Northern and Western Regional Assembly explicitly support the restoration of the WRC missing link from Athenry to Claremorris and from Claremorris to Sligo for passenger and freight use, recognising the strategic importance of the western rail corridor as a growth enabler for the region, and its potential to link the economies of large urban centres along the western seaboard. The strategy also recognises the potential of the WRC in consolidating the Atlantic economic corridor.

This is also the stated objective of the respective county development plans of Galway, Mayo and Sligo. In summary, there is now the potential for Westport, Ballina, Castlebar, Claremorris, Tuam and Sligo to have a passenger intercity and commuter rail link with the regional capital of Galway, and a direct rail-freight route to the southern ports of Cork and Waterford, the new Foynes Trans-European Transport Network, TEN-T, core port and the proposed new port facilities in Galway. The question now is whether Arup will recognise this potential or, indeed, be allowed to recognise it.

We are conscious that the social and economic future of large areas of Ireland may depend on the outcome of the work Arup is now doing and we wish it well in its endeavours. Arup now has the opportunity to restore public confidence in such consultation processes.

In January 2021, the EU declared that the Northern and Western Region had regressed from "Developed Region" to "Region in Transition" status. Amongst the key reasons for this decline is the lack of investment in the region's railway infrastructure on a north-south axis, resulting in the absence of modern rail transport and sustainable access to our ports. We believe it imperative that the all-island rail review would directly address this regression by strongly recommending the redevelopment of railways, including existing unused lines, in the northern and western nomenclature of territorial units for statistics, NUTS, 2 region.

The rail review should also consider the application by the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, to the European Commission, dated 9 August 2019, in which he stated "Ireland believes that there is a need to amend the TEN-T Regulation and requests that the European Commission considers the existing requirements for the Ten-T Core Network with a view to including the Atlantic seaboard region of Ireland on the Ten-T Core Network". Despite a positive response to the Department from the EU on 10 October of that year, the recently published draft TEN-T revision shows no such change. Instead, it is clear the only addition by Ireland is the inclusion of the multibillion DART project for Dublin.

The consultation paper for the all-island rail review, dated November 2021, sets out the ambition for the review as follows: "This Review will consider how the rail network on the island of Ireland can improve to promote sustainable connectivity into, and between, the major cities, enhance regional accessibility and support balanced regional development ... and look at how the railways are used, how they could be used in future and how the network can evolve to serve the people on the island of Ireland". This declaration is, of course, entirely commendable but it remains to be seen whether the all-island review will deliver the radical and ambitious plan that is needed for every part of Ireland. We are sure members will agree that in the context of developing genuine strategies for dealing with carbon emissions, Ireland must urgently recognise the enormous value of all its existing rail assets and, in particular, its strategic rail corridors. It is imperative that, from now on, such rail assets are fully protected for future rail development and not given up for any other purposes whatsoever. Ripping up railways is not a way of protecting them.

In 2021, following the publication by the Department of Transport of a report by EY, West on Track commissioned an independent economic appraisal of the Galway-Mayo rail link by an economist, Dr. John Bradley. A copy of that report, together with a summary of its findings, was sent to the members of this committee last June. Its key finding was:

A cost benefit analysis of reactivating Phases 2 & 3 of the Western Rail Corridor (WRC) yields a positive net present value (NPV) and benefit-to-cost ratio of >1.0. When additional non-monetised benefits of a project appraisal are considered, a strong business case exists to carry out the project.

A copy of Dr Bradley's report has been sent to Arup as part of our submission. We believe his conclusions would be affirmed by any serious independent review.

Both An Taoiseach and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, are on record as supporting the redevelopment of the western rail corridor Speaking in Dáil Éireann on 24 September 2020, the Minister said:

Developing those two small links [from Athenry to Claremorris and from Limerick city to Foynes] would give us a national rail freight service connected to two international deepwater ports. I would go to Europe with that proposal. I would take it to the EU's climate action recovery fund and say that this proposal makes economic sense. This is a region with clean power, clean water, manufacturing expertise and two deep-sea ports that can be connected by rail freight. I do not see why it cannot work.

Speaking during the launch of the revised national development plan, NDP, in Cork on Monday, 4 October 2021, An Taoiseach stated that the Government would "enthusiastically" support expenditure on the western rail corridor going forward. He said: "I think you can be assured the Minister for Public Expenditure [and Reform] will support the Western Rail Corridor very enthusiastically". We now look forward to seeing these unequivocal declarations of support reflected in the findings by Arup.