Radio Kerry report that the final pieces of the legal agreement for transferring ownership from CIE are currently being dealt with, and the council is expected to officially own the lands by the New Year.
The next phase of works to be undertaken include completing the design for the planning application, the assessment of the environmental impacts, and lodging the planning application – this is expected to be done before the end of March.
The Dungarvan Leader report this week that the entire 50km from Waterford to Dungarvan along the CIÉ owned railway will be converted into a Greenway by late summer. This is just over a year since Waterford City & County Council began works on the route which is licensed to them by CIÉ.
This clearly shows the time-line in which projects like this are deliverable within, meanwhile in Kerry we see no developments on similar state owned lines between Tralee and Fenit and on to the Kerry border.
A couple of interesting articles from over 25 years ago have appeared on the Down the Years section of The Kerryman newspaper recently, although the subject is Castleisland the similarities with the current situation with the Tralee – Fenit and the North Kerry line are uncanny:
We wonder how that turned out…
Kerry County Council have posted the Part VIII planning application for the second phase of the Tralee Fenit Greenway. This application deals with the section of the line from the station to the previously developed section at Rock street.
The planning documents are online and the date for receipt of submissions is the Friday August 29th. If you are in favour of this project then please make sure you make a submission to that effect.
Although this is a short section ((~500m) it is important as it provides a safe pedestrian and cycle route to the regions main public transport hub, connects with the existing Big River path, and in doing so connects with CBS national school.
Providing cycle links to all public transport hubs and schools by 2020 is part of the governments objectives as set down in the National Cycle Policy Framework.
Yesterday we posted about the launch of Edward to Rock Street section of the Greenway, well it seems that Minister Kelly had even more good news up his sleeve!
Today he announced that CIE has agreed to divest it unused railway lands in the county to Kerry County Council, land which will allow for the completion of not only the Tralee to Fenit Greenway but also the extension of the Great Southern Trial into Kerry, Radio Kerry have an audio clip from the Minister.
While this news is more than welcome lets hope that this is progressed in a proper and timely manner,as some of you may remember that CIE agreed to sell this land to Kerry Co. Co. back in the 1980’s.
So fingers crossed that this time it doesn’t get derailed.
The bridge at Kilfenora was struck by a truck on Friday morning which caused serious damage to the bridge span and stone piers resulting in the closure of the road over the Easter weekend. Thankfully the Irish Rail [the landowners] had a crane on site first thing this mornign to fix the bridge.
