This article is from page 2 of the 2007-05-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE Shannon Rail Partnership has appealed to the Minister for Trans- port to ensure that the Shannon rail- link goes ahead after a feasibility study endangered the project.
The draft study into the €240 mil- lion rail-link has predicted that there will be a significant operating deficit in the early years of the service.
The locally-based Shannon Rail Partnership has written to Minister Martin Cullen after he confirmed that the initial study results were very poor.
The study stated: “in the early
years there would be significant defi- cit on the operating account, but with a buoyant air travel market for the whole 30 year period, revenues could potentially cover operating costs, taking a longer term view.”
Minister Cullen is now awaiting a fresh examination of the proposal by consultants, who have estimated the cost at €700 million.
The partnership believes that the cost of the project is €240 million and has now written to secure the minister’s support for the proposal.
In the letter, the partnership said that the region is at a “critical point” in its future development.
“A positive decision on proceeding with Phase 1 of the Shannon Rail Link proposal is critical if we are to secure the full potential of the re- gion. This phase is very achievable,’ UMNO B
The partnership welcomed the recommendations from the report and in particular that to be success- ful and to achieve competitive travel times it needs to be a direct service “designed and built to the highest technical standard”.
The partnership welcomed the pos- sibility that the project could be de- veloped in phases for reduced costs.
The draft feasibility study also
anticipated that there would be “‘ad- verse environmental and severance impacts, particularly where the line runs through Shannon town.”
However, he partnership responded by adding that “Now is an opportune time to eliminate this issue as a Mas- ter Plan is being prepared in rela- tion to TC2 in Shannon town centre and by including plans for rail, and reserving land for its development, these issues can be avoided in ad- EN acon
The Shannon Rail Partnership re- ferred to various mid-west develop- ments including the regeneration of the Shannon Free Zone in the letter.