Irish Railways: Athenry-Claremorris (1991-1994)

Background:

On the 31 October 1991 the section of railway from Claremorris to Ennis was placed into per-way engineers possession, rendering 70 miles of track unavailable for passenger or freight services.

Within a month on 18 November 1991 Iarnrod Eireann commenced the lifting of 5 miles of track on section north of Tuam in the Kilbannon / Castlegrove area.

Reassurances were made by Iarnrod Eireann that this was a temporary measure although significant concerns and skepticism were raised locally in Tuam and Claremorris. The removed tracks were brought to Portlaoise per-way depot for reconditioning and put to further use on the Ballina branch, tracks from there were subsequently reconditioned to be placed on the section outside Tuam.

The section south from Athenry to Ennis was made available for traffic again in January 1992 while north Athenry lingered with an unknown future. The weedspray train operated to Tuam in early summer 1992, while Westrail ECS workings transversed under per/way pilot to allow for steam services in Galway city.

By 1993 increased Bell container traffic was putting heavy pressure on the Waterford to Dublin rail route. As a result, a solution was considered by means of reintroducing freight services from Limerick to Claremorris serving Mayo industries via this western route from Waterford.

In anticipation of this freight flow, engineering works commenced to reopen the railway south from Claremorris in summer 1993.

Freight trains returned on what became known as the “Western Freight Corridor” on 5th September 1994, the service was officially launched in Athenry by the Minister of Energy, Noel Treacy that evening as the train returned to Limerick.

Unfortunately the reopening resulted in Tuam station closing as a block post. The disconnection of the signal cabin in Tuam along with the station’s point work and signaling system was the significant contributing factor ending Westrail operations.

Coal & oil for the Asahi plant at Killala became the predominate traffic flow north of Athenry until that traffic ended in November 1997 with the closure of the Asahi plant.

The line south from Claremorris saw its last revenue train in February 2000, a fertiliser special from Foynes to Claremorris.

Following over 20 years of continuous campaigning by West on Track, the Irish Government in November 2025 confirmed that the Western Rail Corridor (Claremorris–Athenry via Tuam) has been secured as a targeted priority project in the Department of Transport’s Sectoral Plan for the revised National Development Plan. The project is scheduled for delivery by 2030, and enabling works can commence shortly.

Passenger and freight services shall once again be a common sight along the Galway to Mayo railway.