Rail route to go west of Dunshaughlin

The preferred route for the Dublin-Navan rail line was announced by Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, during a visit to Navan last week. Mr Cowen also said he would now be asking Irish Rail to proceed with the necessary preparation for a railway order application. The Taoiseach was joined by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey to announce that the preferred route will travel past Dunshaughlin along the route of the original Navan rail line, through Batterstown, Drumree, Dunsany and Kilmessan. Work is already underway on the first phase of the rail link to Pace, near Clonee and Dunboyne. Mr Dempsey said he was now keen to get construction on phase two of the line from Pace to Navan underway as quickly as possible. Mr Cowen said the chosen option of the original alignment of the railway had 'a number of advantages'. He said: 'It provided a better economic rate of return for the State"s investment, could be provided at significantly lower cost and is also the preferred option from the public consultation process carried out by Irish Rail.' Over 80 per cent of people indicated a preference for this route, which also has a shorter journey time to Dublin of 59 minutes, compared to 62 minutes for the alternative route. Mr Dempsey said: 'This Government is 100 per cent committed to the delivery of the new Navan rail line. I believe that it makes sense even in these times of major economic constraint to continue planning and delivering better public transport alternatives for hard-pressed commuters.' Cllr Tommy Reilly welcomed the minister"s announcement and said he was fully confident the rail link would be delivered by 2014. 'It will be a massive boost to the people living close to the line in Trim, Navan and Dunshaughlin and will mean a major employment boost,' he said. The announcement was greeted with some surprise by local election candidate, Michael McLoughlin, who pointed to a cut of €70 million to the public transport infrastructure budget in 2009 by Minister Dempsey. He said similar cuts would be needed next year so it was very hard to see where the money was to come from for this project. 'It is hard to reconcile the actual figures contained in the Government"s own book of estimates with these types of announcements. Of course, all that is being announced is more plans and studies. It is clear from the transport section of the book of estimates that there is a huge cut in public transport projects for this year and most certainly next year. Given there are a number of projects around the country in progress, it is very difficult to see where this money will come from,' he said. Cllr Peadar Tóibín condemned the announcement as a cynical and self-serving exercise. 'This announcement is a typical example of 'horizon politics" so often used by Fianna Fáil. In 1994, Noel Dempsey told us that we would have the rail line in 2002. In 2002, the minister told us that Meath would have the rail line by 2007. In 2007 we were told that it would be here in 2010. Now we are now told that it will arrive in 2016. The promise is always on the horizon but when we get to the particular date we find it is still out of reach,' he said. 'Cynical political strokes such as this announcement in the jaws of an election will be seen by jaded commuters for what it is, a cheap election stunt,' he said.