Press release From: The Western Rail Trail campaign
August 18th 2018 for immediate release: 501 words (main body text)
· Overwhelming public support for greenway in West
· Greenway petition hits 20,000
· ‘Now is the time to act’ say 20,000 greenway campaigners.
· Meetings in Athenry and Tuam to bring Quiet Man Greenway to the attention of County Council
The week before public meetings in Athenry and Tuam will bring the Greenway on the closed railway to a head, a spokesman for the Western Rail Trail Campaign said he is delighted that 20,000 people have now signed a petition asking for a greenway on the closed railway which runs from Sligo to Athenry.
‘It’s not often you put a case into the public domain and you can say 20,000 people agree with you’ said Brendan Quinn of the Western Rail Trail campaign. Mr Quinn started the petition last year on website change.org. He said it has since seen steady growth with 50 or 60 signatures a day, and the important thing is the signatures and support have come from people living in Galway, Mayo and Sligo.
The Western Rail Trail campaign is an alliance of community-based campaign groups in Galway, Mayo and Sligo campaigning to preserve the alignment of the closed rail line from Athenry to Collooney by utilising the route for tourism and leisure as a greenway until such time as a railway may be possible.
‘The campaign in Galway is getting very active’ said Mr Quinn: ‘The Galway section of the route is being branded ‘The Quiet Man Greenway’, a reference to the iconic Ballyglunin railway station and it’s movie history. A public meeting is due to take place on August 21st in Athenry at the Raheen Woods Hotel at 8.00 pm with a further meeting for businesses in Tuam on August 22nd at The Correlea Court Hotel at 6.30 pm to show the public and businesses the benefits the greenway will bring to their communities.’
Mr Quinn said, ‘it is a great to see the Galway campaign really picking up and we hope that Galway county council will come on board and support The Quiet Man Greenway so that the council can apply for Greenway funding under the Department of Transports new national Greenway Strategy.’
‘What we can say at those meetings now is that there is overwhelming support for this campaign from the public. This is such a great opportunity for Athenry, Tuam and East Galway as well as Mayo and Sligo.’
“20,000 signatures asking for a Greenway from Sligo to Athenry is a lot of people, the public want to see this happen”
There will be so many benefits of the long distance greenway of 130km from Sligo to Athenry. The route is already in state ownership through Irish Rail so there are no issues of land ownership. The huge benefit of a greenway on the closed railway route is if the route is needed for a railway in future years, the route has been protected and a railway can still be re-built with a greenway alongside. The Railway may not be re-opened for 20 or 30 years, so why not create a public amenity with a 130 km greenway from Sligo to Athenry which will be a massive tourist attraction and bring great amenity benefits to the communities it passes through in the meantime?
ENDS
Contacts: Brendan Quinn 087 4198193,
Find us on Facebook: sligomayogreenwaycampaign
email brenquinn@eircom.net
Link to petition for editors:
Free to use images here: https://www.sligogreenway.com/media--images.html (please acknowledge Sligo Greenway Co-op as owners)