Local community asked for a Greenway to use the old rain line between Swinford and Claremorris passing through Kiltimagh.
Instead, they were landed with a velorail project.
Operators have to stop car traffic on main roads coming into Kiltimagh for said velorail carriages by manually opining and closing gates as they pedal over crossings.
And they held the grand opening on a Friday lunchtime so the local beaurocrats could get their mugs in the media and pat each other on the back without the inconvenience of public attending on a weekday.
40 euros a go to hire a velo carriage and there’s not even an ice cream stand at the end of the line once you get there.
Meanwhile… There’s an Amenities Park, that could benefit the entire district with public space and facilities in the centre of the town, adjacent to the new velorail, that’s years behind schedule for lack of funding.
No community consultation on where funding should be spent, all about photo ops for local government.

11 comments

  2. How do the gates at the level crossings work? Are “operators” the velo users themselves, or is someone paid to hang around all day letting the velo users through?

  3. I posted a link to this story a while ago with these questions:

    Seems fun but what’s it like? Do you have to stay on until the very end? What if the person behind wants to go faster? What if you need to stop or turn around for any reason? Do you need to arrange transport at the opposite end?
    It just seems like a regular greenway where kids and adults can just do as much as they want at their own pace would be much better.

    Locals aren’t going to pay €40 every single weekend to use it; the nice surprise about the Clew Bay Greenway, which was originally imagined to be a tourist attraction, is that locals of all age groups use it a lot. It’s not seen as a tourist thing anymore, rather a valuable local amenity that allows people to exercise safely.

  5. Brought to you by the Committee from Mars. I witnessed a fully funded road to nowhere in County Waterford. A beautiful, new winding tarred road , footpath, and associated fencing that led to a mound of earth with no further onward access.

  8. As protest the locals should get together and schedule for one of the group to go down every day, hire one of these shit piles and just park it on the rails.

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