Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry that I missed the opening part of the Minister’s presentation. I was down with the Ukrainian, but as I came through the door I thought “what a breath of fresh air”. He is speaking the language that I want to hear. I know that we differ on other things but not on this. I have longed for the day that I can get on a train in Dublin and change to a train that will bring me to Ballina, Donegal, Rosslare or wherever. I long to see long trains carrying freight across the country instead of 40 ft trailers everywhere. I think it is possible. The naysayers say that it cannot happen but it cannot happen if you believe that it cannot happen. However, let us go back to Henry Ford: if you believe you can, you can. It is as simple as that. I am thinking of industries I know along the western corridor. I drove trucks for a living at one stage, delivering to factories from Donegal to Cork and from Cork to Waterford and Waterford to Belfast. I drove every inch of this country and I know how horrendous a task it is in a 40 ft truck trying to get through some of its towns and villages.

Let us take my home town of Galway, for example. If a freight train could come into Galway and offload its cargo and have it distributed to smaller trucks for delivery around the city and county, it would make so much sense and would, first, reduce traffic on the road and, second, help with climate action. It would be far easier to run electric trucks short distances around the county. I am 100% with the Minister there.

I asked him at a committee meeting some time ago to facilitate an earlier train from Ballina because people want to commute to Dublin. That was done quickly after that engagement. I have now been asked to see if the Minister can facilitate a later train home in the evening because we are now in a situation where students are commuting from as far as the west to colleges in Dublin. The request is that there would be a later train home in the evening to Ballina. That is something the Department might examine with Irish Rail.

Quiet carriages were introduced recently. If people are commuting to work early in the morning, that couple of hours by train allows them to do something they cannot do in their car. They can deal with emails and various issues. I ask that this be expanded and that as far as possible that quiet carriages be provided on every rail service in the country. I know that might be a big ask but it would facilitate and encourage more people to use the rail service.

I used to love travelling by rail and I loved the dining car where I could go in and sit down and have a meal. That was largely done away with but even now on some services there is not even a trolley service where a passenger can get a cup of tea and a sandwich. I would love to see that sort of facility brought back. These are all things that make people want to travel. There was a ridiculous situation during the celtic Tiger era where people were flying from Galway to Dublin for meetings. It took them 40 minutes to get out of the city, get through the airport, fly up in 15 or 20 minutes to Dublin, and then another hour and a half to get back into the city centre to have their meeting. A brother of mine said to me it was lunacy because they could drive quicker. They could have taken a bus up and been here quicker than they could flying. I believe the Minister’s vision, or the last part of it that I heard, has huge potential. My colleague in Mayo, Cllr Mark Duffy, has been advocating for the use of rail but facilities such as the quiet carriage and dining experience for those who want it should be available on trains. If the Minister could get to that, it would be helpful.

On a more, almost jovial, note, my father used have to travel up and down to Dublin for treatment for cancer before he died. The first day he went to the train station, he handed in his travel pass and asked for a return ticket to Dublin. They told him it was a only a single ticket. He looked at the poor girl behind the counter and he said, “I know I have cancer; I hope I am not going to die in Dublin and someone would have to bring me home.” A return ticket should be considered. Apart from anything, elderly people having to queue is not right. We should give them their ticket from their home station and let them go back home. Let it be an open ticket of some sort or other.

There is also a slight difficulty with disabilities. Someone very close to me is in a wheelchair and not every service provides wheelchair access and that is something the Minister might look at.

I have an old bugbear, which the Minister and I have discussed before and he was very positive on it, namely, the light rail system for Galway. People travelling on the western rail corridor would be able to get off in Oranmore and use a light rail service to bring them to Ballybrit where many of the medical device companies are based. Most people are now saying that not only will the ring road for Galway not happen in their lifetimes but it will not happen during their grandchildren’s lives either. The people behind light rail believe that can be done quite quickly if the will is there.

The Minister asked whether there would be enough people travelling into Galway from Claremorris and Tuam? If the service was there, it would grow. I recall when the Luas started in my neck of the woods. Early in the morning it was quite easy to get on the Luas; there was no problem. Now I have to battle for my place to get onto the Luas. It is very much a question of, “If you build it, they will come”. We need to develop the rail network so that it is providing services to every corner of the country that it can.

Senator Conway mentioned Crusheen where the rail station is not being used. He made the point that since it is there, it would be very easy to go to the next stage and open it and have a rail stop there. We should do a little bit of thinking like that. Again on the rail service, the Minister and I spoke about the bridge over the Corrib where the old Clifden line was. Would it not be wonderful to have a train service going out to Clifden and the number of tourists it would bring? It would be a rail service that would join Clifden and Westport. I know that I am going way beyond where the plan is but it was done a couple of hundred years ago with the British. We had trains going all over this country and then we ripped them all out. Now thankfully someone with vision is putting back in as many as we can. I would love to see the Minister grow that and I support him in any way possible in his vision for that.

I will leave it there. I thank him, particularly in the area of transport where I appreciate what he is doing on the ground.