Quote:
Originally Posted by philip
Naas can hardly be described as having a railway connection seeing as it was torn up many years ago and the M7 built over it. Sallins is not Naas and the road between the two is choked with cars anytime I'm on it.
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True, but the people of Naas still use it despite the closer proximity of a 3 lane dc to Dublin and back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Victor
Theres many a county town that isn't the biggest of towns.
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Yes, and a case in point is where Trim was the county town of Meath.
But if you take Navan as a county town and the consider that the M1 is shadowed by a railway, the M4 is shadowed by a railway, the N/M7 is shadowed by a railway, and the N81 is shadowed by a rail, the you spot fairly quickly a sizeable gap on the parrallel N2/N3 north-east corridor which is not rail served.
It's a gap in the map, full stop.
I'm not arguing blindly for the Navan project. It's not even the most important project in county Meath, that honour goes to Dunboyne.
but common sense means that it will happen, the question is when. Navan Drogheda would have been an ideal interim solution (interim being a long long time in an Irish context) but until the direct link is forced to a negative conclusion it just won't be considered.
Point is that the sooner the direct link either comes off the fence on either the posative side or negative side then nothing will happen. Most people would bet on the negative side which would open the door to Navan Drogheda again, with the direct link being put back to a later timeframe.
But until the process is exhausted that can't happen. The planning of the direct link has to be pushed forward to a conclusion to get to that point, otherwise there will never be a conclusion to the merry-go-round.
Every campaign focuses on talking up a project. But not every campaign can expect a successful conclusion if it;s primary objective is not met.
Even if Meath doesn't get Navan Clonsilla when the current process ends, it will at least be left with a fully open door to get Navan Drogheda.
Ironically, campaigning for Navan Clonsilla may yet yield Navan Drogheda. None of us knows where this will lead to over the next few years.
If I were to bet though I'd say the process will exhaust with a no to the direct route for now leading to Navan Drogheda for the interim, and Navan-Clonsilla at a later date (but a real later date).
But again it doesn't really matter what any of us think - politics decides everything in the end