This article is from page 4 of the 2014-04-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
The Cla re People has learned.
The service, which has been closed
since February 2 as a result of seri
ous flooding in the Ballycar area, a
spokesperson from Iarnród Eireann
confirmed yesterday that the service will not be reopened until the middle of May at the earliest. The track was originally closed in early February of this year following severe flooding in the wake of ongoing wet conditions last winter. This flooding increased water levels on nearby Ballycar Lough dramatically and resulted in the rail line becoming severally submerged. At the time, it was estimated that the rail service would be up and running again in the middle of last month. However, a spokesperson from the national road company revealed yesterday that the Ennis to Limerick section of the Western Rail Corridor will not reopen again until the middle of next month. “It will now be mid May at least. It is just a matter of waiting for the levels to subside,” said a spokesperson from Iarnród Eireann. “The landscape is know as Karst and it feature porous rock that takes a long time for the water to get through.” The train station at Sixmilebridge has been closed since February with bus transfers taking commuters back and forth between Ennis and Limerick. This latest flooding comes despite the railway company raising the track levels in the Ballycar area by 60 centimetres in 2003, in an effort to avoid flooding. The level of flooding taking place this year was so severe that the water levels were recorded more than half a metre above the raised track. The existing rail timetable on the Ennis to Limerick section of the Western Rail Corridor will continue to be honoured by Iarnród Eireann, with busses taking the place of trains on these routes.