Rail can play vital role in a car-free future

Sir, – Keith Duggan’s excellent article in Saturday’s Weekend Review (“Can you live car free in Ireland”, March 11th) has one paragraph which is uniquely pertinent to Galway: “Galway city is a traffic black-spot, with its impenetrable series of roundabouts. Only now is the fallacy of dismantling Ireland’s once-enviable train network becoming apparent”.

Galway’s traffic woes have long being a marvel. It is now ranked as the seventh most congested city in Europe. This is an amazing statistic as it has just 2.5 per cent of the average population of the top 10 offending cities. However, Galway has an unused but intact piece of national rail infrastructure in situ in the guise of the alignment from Sligo to Galway. We know reopening intact rail lines costs just 10 per cent per kilometre of new dual-carriageway as seen with the reopening of the Galway Limerick line in 2010. This line is now by far the fastest growing passenger route in the country.

The soundings from the yet to be published Strategic Rail Review point to a welcome change in focus coming from the Department of Transport regarding a positive move towards growing the capacity and reach of the national rail network. Each full five-carriage train coming south through Tuam from Mayo and Sligo will displace 275 cars from Galway’s gridlocked streets.

Luckily for commuters in Galway this primary infrastructure is in place. With a relatively small investment commuters will have the opportunity to skip Galway’s famous congestion, arriving into the heart of the city at Eyre Square. – Yours, etc,