Limerick–Foynes railway line
The Limerick to Foynes Railway is a 40km mothballed line in County Limerick. A tender has been published for the works to reopen the line, with a planned completion date of the second quarter of 2024. [1]
History
The railway was opened in April 1858 by the Great Southern and Western Railway. The line was both freight and passenger however passenger traffic ceased in 1963. During around 2000, freight traffic started to decrease and on 9 January 2003, the last train, an inspection car, moved on the line. In 2006 the line was disconnected at Limerick check.[citation needed]
Future
Planning is underway to reopen the line. In December 2018, Irish Rail had sought permission to replace the unsafe Robertstown viaduct for the potential reintroduction of freight traffic with a new, single span structure. The Railway line is part of the EU infrastructure Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), because of this in 2015 the Shannon Foynes port company had received €800,000 to study the feasibility of reinstating the line, as of 2019 the study is still ongoing.[2][3][4] In July 2022, Irish Rail published a tender to contract for the rebuilding of the line. [1]