Quote:
Originally Posted by Navan Junction
Not to worry Mark. The whole thing has been a pain, and the irony of the situation is that it wasn't a negative report as such. The best sound bytes were the negative ones unfortunately.
As these things go with the finance-babble of financial vs economic, it was quite good esp from the ridership perspective.
Its just been a pain in the ass that a casual remark or two has put in train a series of events which have managed to give the impression that it is a pet political project, which history shows it is not. And frankly, it would be so much easier to push for if it was a pet political project.
There was a history of broken promises on the mot site which showed that this could not be the case - the railway is only being looked at way after every other project has been advanced. The campaign for passenger rail services to Navan goes back to 1981!
I really do think it a strong possibility that the Transport 21 funding comment that led to this, and yes I'd imagine that it was politically inconvienient. Noel Dempsey has been taking flak over the non delivery of the railway for years in his own backyard so I'd imagine that whatever led to this, it had more likely than not more to do with the bigger picture of Transport 21 than Meath
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Sorry NJ, I have to take issue with some of what you say there.
The Navan railway is becoming very political and very quickly. Its background in terms of promises and financial/economic viability is very similar if not identical to the WRC. It may not be a "pet political project" just yet, but the evidence on display would suggest its getting there. The only thing seperating it from the WRC is cost.
I agree with Tom Finn's comments regarding funding. (and its not often I agree with someone in IE) If the man has actually been demoted because of his comments, then it was no doubt coming from a political agenda. Remember we are not talking about the "bigger" picture of T21. We are talking about the rail investment side of T21. I believe that Tom Finn is referring to that. So removing him from his position due to his comments firmly sails the Navan rail project into the very murky waters of the political sea. There is no doubt about it.
Furthermore, demoting a man for saying this, while the same man and many of his colleagues have poured many doubts on more "economically viable" projects like the PPT, Sunday services through it from Kildare etc etc, strikes me as an act that was deemed by the DOT as too close to the political bone.
Its a Meath thing. Just like the the WRC was a western thing. I bet my ass that had Tom Finn said something similar about the interconnector, then he'd still be pushing the T21 buttons in IE and the DOT wouldn't give a toss.