Iarnród Éireann applies for Crusheen funds

Building work on Crusheen Railway Station is likely to begin in 2010 if funding applied for by Iarnród Éireann is sanctioned early in the New Year, according to Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley.

Iarnród Éireann has submitted a scheme for formal approval to the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and the Clare TD expects that funding will be sanctioned early next year.
“This is a major breakthrough in the long-running saga of the opening of a rail station at Crusheen on the Western Rail Corridor. For a number of years now, very considerable effort has been undertaken to ensure that a station at Crusheen would open once more. Now that Iarnród Éireann have been able to put together a viable proposal together with a local developer and Clare County Council, I believe that the construction of the station will begin in the coming year,” deputy Dooley stated.
“The dogged effort of the local Crusheen Railway Committee has been instrumental in advancing the project to this stage,” he continued.
“I am confident that Iarnród Éireann would not have submitted a project such as this for sanction until such time as it was clear to them that funding would be made available.
“I believe the station at Crusheen will provide access to the Western Rail corridor for people throughout North and East Clare,” concluded Deputy Dooley.
Rail services between Limerick and Galway were originally due to start in January 2009 however after a number of postponements it is not now known when the route will open. The line was expected to open in early January 2010, according to Iarnród Éireann but due to recent flooding on the line this has been delayed indefinitely.