Irish Rail says early morning Longford–Sligo service ‘feasible’ but stalled by lack of funding

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

In an exchange within the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Sligo-based Labour Party Senator, Nessa Cosgrove expressed her frustration at the wasting of €50 million on a non-functioning IT system while services within the North West remain woeful in comparison to those offered in other parts of the country.

Senator Cosgrove, herself a regular rail user, has been actively campaigning for improved public transport services since before her election to the Seanad in 2025.

The Labour Party spokesperson on Rural and Community Development once more highlighted the cost of reintroducing catering services across the whole rail network, which the NTA and Irish Rail have previously claimed would cost €2m per year.

Senator Cosgrove said, “It is very frustrating for someone like me in the North West who comes in here to these committees week after week looking for additional services to be provided in the North West, and we’re always being told we don’t have the money.

“Just for example, with this €50million loss that we see now, you could get 25 years of catering across all services on Irish Rail.”

The Sligo-based Senator went on to reveal that disability advocacy groups had now begun contacting her, because of her work on this issue to let her know what impact this was having upon their lives.

Responding, Mary Considine, CEO Irish Rail was able to offer some comfort as she revealed that while Irish Rail do not have the funding to introduce the catering services as was, that she had “engaged with alternative providers to see is there another way we can do it, and we hope that in the coming months we will be able to formerly advise you that we will be running a pilot later this year.”

While Ms Considine was unable to confirm which routes would be served by the pilot. She did indicate that it would be inter-city routes, such as the Dublin-Sligo which would benefit.

Moving on to the provision of an early morning commuter train from Longford to Sligo, which Senator Cosgrove has highlighted multiple times over the past 17 months, both in the Seanad and Transport Committee, the Irish Rail Chief revealed that Irish Rail believed that it was “Feasible to do it, we have the fleet and that is the most critical thing. In other parts of the country we don’t…Ourselves and the NTA were supportive of it but unfortunately the funding didn’t materialise this year, and it will be part of our ask again for next year”.

Laying the responsibility for delivery firmly at the door of the Minister for Transport she said “Our team have quantified it, we have shared that information with the NTA and it is subject to the funding that will be made available ultimately through the DoT (Department of Transport).”

Senator Cosgrove also highlighted the irony of spending money on a temporary passenger station for people spending €499 a day to attend the Ryder Cup while the old station in Ballisodare, Co. Sligo, a town which has over trebled in size since the old station was closed, and is less than 10km outside of Sligo Town.

Article Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.