The Foynes-Limerick railway line is “progressing very well” and is on target to open for freight movement inside two years, Irish Rail’s CEO Jim Meade has informed a Joint Oireachtas Committee.
He stated: We intend to have all of the track laid by the end of this year. We are getting great support from the Department of Transport on this, in fairness. We have basically got the green light to finish out and do the signalling and the level crossing, so we are on track to have that finalised by very late 2025 or quarter 1 of 2026.”
Mr. Meade also indicated that the line could be open for passenger travel also in the coming years.
“It is a freight line that is going in, and we are currently only considering it for freight. That said, a train line is a train line, so once we have it, it would mean we could do something about passengers or putting in stations. Once the line is there, we can operate passenger trains, even in a temporary case for the Ryder Cup (2027).
He continued: “I would agree that the line offers potential. It is part of the LSMATS (Limerick Shannon Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy), from a transport perspective, of putting in passenger services on that line, be it at Patrickswell, Adare, Raheen, Dooradoyle, the hospital or Castlemungret, which is a big residential area. All of that possibility is there, and we would say that we should absolutely do it.
“At Raheen, it would be at the back of Regeneron and beside where Eli Lilly is about to build. Regeneron is about 4,000-strong at the moment, and Eli Lilly would be as big, so we would have big communities of people moving in and out of there for work.
Mr. Meade concluded: “It certainly is an opportunity if we want to do something significant around Limerick as part of the LSMATS plan to grow the rail infrastructure. We can certainly do it, and we are happy to work with the chief executive of the local authority there, Dr. Pat Daly, to look at the City and County Development Plan to see how we can assist with anything on it.”