McGraths Partitionist Railway Line Stance Unacceptable

Posted by Alan Kelly on September 04, 2017 at 10:46 AM

Deputy Mattie McGrath's Partitionist position on Tipperary's railway lines is completely unacceptable. Last week he stated that he couldn't justify supporting the continuance of the Ballybrophy line but he could support the Limerick Junction to Waterford line. So in effect Deputy McGrath wants to keep the line that is running in the Southern end of the county but wants to close the one in the Northern end. How can he adopt such a stance and still say he wants to represent all the people of Tipperary equally. 
I have fought to save both these railway lines throughout my political career. Indeed during the financial crisis when there was no money available I was able to keep both these lines open as Minister for Public Transport. I represented both lines and both sides of the county equally unlike Deputy McGrath. 
These lines need huge investment and they need to have better services that in particular service commuters to Dublin and other cities. If these services are built, well then the customers will come. 
Rail infrastructure is very important to the future of our county and any closure of Rail lines would result in 9 stations closing across Tipperary. This is not acceptable. It would be contrary to Programme for Government, the Regional Action Plan for Jobs and also the Rural Action Plan. It would also be contrary to the Government's Climate Change commitments.

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