Just 320 passengers a day will reportedly travel on the new 110 million Euro Ennis to Galway rail line when it opens for business next week.
It’s also claimed that Irish Rail will lose over 2 million Euro a year operating the highly anticipated service which links the Mid West to Galway for the first time in over three decades.
As well as stations at Ennis and Athenry the train will also have stops in Sixmilebridge Gort Ardrahan and Craughwell and its reported a stop for Crusheen could be in the pipeline by the end of the year.
In an independent review of Irish Rail’s business , seen by the Irish Independent, just 100 thousand passengers are expected to make the switch from road to rail in the first five years of phase 1 of the Western Rail Corridor.
This works out at just over 300 passengers a DAY and even when this doubles to over 600 by 2015, the report states the trains will still run at less than 40 percent capacity ..
The arrival of the service is eagerly awaited in County Clare with hopes that the renewed rail link will boost economic and tourism prospects given the heavy hit the region has taken in the downturn, however some opposition TD’tds believe report questions the future viability of the service.
There’s already been criticism of the timetables with just five trains running in each direction per day, two fewer than originally promised..
There’s also concern that it will take longer to travel by rail than road and that journey times on the N 18 will be shortened even further with the opening of the Gort-Crusheen Bypass.
However Iarnrod Eireann says its confident it could increase passenger numbers, and that the service would be developed over time.
