The line will close, there really is no other option that could happen. To expect anything else is to delude oneself. There are no magic tricks to stop it, we have tried them all before in Wexford and then didn't work and Irish Rail are not going to make the same mistake again.
The minister is going to find himself in serious trouble, as he will be the last person to know as to close the line Irish Rail apply to the Minister for Transport aka Leo, not him. Even at Minister level provided Irish Rail can prove the line is uneconomic and that there is no reasonable chance to recover from that, the line closes there is no avenue to block the closure. I've spoken with a lot of people in Irish transport in recent weeks and not one has anything to say about Alan Kelly bar his like for photographs. He hasn't delivered anything and he is refusing to meet with key stakeholders, ourselves included.
The argument always falls to, if Irish Rail could do better...
Compared to Waterford Rosslare the service Nenagh has is amazing, morning/evening commuter link to both Dublin and Limerick and a service on a Sunday! They could do better again but really its miles from the one train each way lark which connected to nothing in Wexford.
As the same criteria will be used as with the closure of Waterford Rosslare, which was running a smaller loss, higher load factor and offered an incredible time advantage vs road there really is no chance the NTA will block a closure
Money wise in the case of Nenagh there is a slightly greater benefit to closing the line than in Wexford. Irish Rail will lose its subsidy for the route, that will be handed back to the NTA and since Bus Eireann already provide a service the subsidy goes back to the pool and is divided up proportionally to all operators. There really is no impact on the balance sheet except the long term 25 million upgrade liability is removed.
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