Childers disappointed at Rosslare-Waterford rail line decision

Issued : Friday 3 September, 2010

Nessa Childers MEP, who represents the Wexford area in the European Parliament expressed her disappointment at the decision by the National Transport Authority to support Irish Rail's bid to suspend the Rosslare-Waterford rail link.

Ms. Childers, who has worked with the Mayor of Wexford Cllr. Joe Ryan to explore funding and upgrading avenues with the European Commission for the South-East line explained, "This decision raises serious question marks about how decisions are made in relation to public transport infrastructure in this country. Important lessons need to be learned in this regard in the future.

"For example, it is bizarre in the extreme that the NTA's own remit permits it to consider passenger services only and disregard freight entirely when examining the viability of a rail line.

"When governments across the EU are encouraging a return to freight transport as we strive to meet the challenges of climate change, it is incomprehensible that the state body charged with examining our public transport requirements is precluded from giving full consideration to freight transport options when making key strategic decisions such as this."

The Labour MEP added, "I am aware that local business had lobbied the Minister responsible to intervene to ensure that a freight service should run on the line but the Minister's acceptance that the line be maintained only on a care and maintenance basis prevents the use of the line for freight transportation purposes.

"I still believe that the Community Rail Partnership model holds out some prospect for the future of the line but a radical sea-change in attitudes is required by the State to enable this to happen."