The Government is being urged to restore plans to re-open the rail line between Waterford and Wexford.
The line was featured in last year’s All Ireland Strategic Rail Review but not in this year’s.
It’s been closed since 2010 but is still being maintained by Irish Rail.
Peter Branigan from campaign group South East on Track says there’s no clarity on why the plans have been dropped, saying; “This is a policy of a very similar Government I suppose with one notable differance in the last year and we’ve seen such a big change with no proper explanation for it so it begs the question why include it as recently as a year ago if you’re already going to change the plans so it suggests to us that the Government has not thought through this policy and we’re calling on them to reconsider it and to include the line in the strategic rail review once more going forward”.
He adds; “This opens up the entire South East region to the rest of the country and a different alternative route from Wexford and Rosslare via Waterford up towards Limerick and Cork and all the way up to Galway so it’s an alternative route and it’s one that we believe could be used for both passenger services and for rail freight “.
