The total cost of reopening the disused rail corridor from Sligo to Limerick would be €249.72 million according to a new report by the West on Track lobby group.
They said the Western Rail Corridor including stations, signalling, level-crossings, track and rolling stock will cost the equivalent of 2.5 miles of the Metro, five miles of the Luas, half of the proposed Red Cow Roundabout works or the equivalent of the Drogheda by-pass.
A spokesman for the group said reopening the 145 mile disused line would "bring life back into nearly 20 communities throughout the west of Ireland and lead to growth and development on an unprecedented scale on a line all the way from Sligo to Limerick".
He also said "it would bring the west of Ireland into its own as a region where people can live and where civil servants will be happy to be decentralised to."
However, the Minister for Transport, Mr Seamus Brennan, who was on an official visit to five stations on the rail corridor, said he might only open sections of the line.
"Clearly there is huge popular support for the idea of doing something. Perhaps sections of the line might be viable and I'll certainly have a look at those early on," Mr Brennan said.
Mr Brennan will visit stations in counties Sligo, Mayo and Galway. He said he would be appointing a new action group to look at the viability of reopening the line.