Sligo County Council is calling on Irish Rail to introduce an early morning rail service to facilitate students and commuters amid “an accommodation shortage” in the northwest town.<\/p>\n
The earliest daily westbound service on the Dublin\u2013Sligo line, serving Longford, Carrick-on-Shannon, Boyle, Ballymote and Collooney, arrives in Sligo at 10.16am.<\/p>\n
A motion from Cllr Edel McSharry, unanimously backed by fellow councillors this morning, called for a service to arrive in Sligo no later than 8.30am.<\/p>\n
Cllr McSharry said the earliest train, arriving in Sligo at 10.16am, “doesn’t align with the reality of modern commuting”.<\/p>\n
“Despite having a well-established and improved rail line, with more improvements to follow, we do not have a train line that gets people into Sligo in time for work or college.<\/p>\n
“If we\u2019re serious about balanced regional development, then we must provide a rail service that allows people to get to Sligo in time for work and education,” she said.<\/p>\n
Cllr McSharry said research had provided “clear evidence” that an early morning rail service is required, adding that such a service would provide a practical, affordable and sustainable solution for many people.<\/p>\n
She cited a recent Atlantic Technological University research paper which found that 47,000 people live within 5km of the Sligo\u2013Longford rail line, and that 90% of respondents surveyed said they would use a rail service arriving in Sligo before 9am.<\/p>\n
The survey, which received 529 responses, was conducted as part of the ATU research paper authored by Holly Briere-Edney and Brian McCann.<\/p>\n
A separate study carried out by the ATU Sligo Students\u2019 Union among 1,701 respondents found that 64% of students reported that accommodation difficulties negatively affected their studies or their ability to remain enrolled.<\/p>\n
Sligo councillors from across the political spectrum spoke at this morning’s monthly meeting in support of the motion for improved rail connectivity, saying it would reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions while supporting employers and education providers.<\/p>\n
Cllr Gerard Mullaney described the amalgamation of IT Sligo in 2022 to become part of Atlantic Technological University as “a gamechanger” for the region, adding that an early morning rail service was “very badly needed”.<\/p>\n
He gave the example of parents in south Leitrim having to buy a car for their child so they could attend their course at ATU Sligo.<\/p>\n
Cllr Ann Higgins said there was “a latent demand” for the early morning service, adding there was a willingness to move away from car-based transport if a suitable alternative was available.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Irish Rail said they recognise the interest and demand in an early morning Longford to Sligo service.<\/p>\n
They said it is a topic that the organisation has examined in the context of its overall timetable engagements with the National Transport Authority.<\/p>\n
“While our Public Service Obligation funding under our contract with the NTA has not facilitated its introduction at this time, we will continue to keep this under review.<\/p>\n
“As soon as funding and other resources allow, we hope to implement such a service at the earliest opportunity, subject to NTA approval,” the spokesperson concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sligo County Council is calling on Irish Rail to introduce an early morning rail service to facilitate students…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-489040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}