Passengers travel from Ennis to Kilkee for the last time on the West Clare Railway service.
The West Clare Railway was a narrow gauge railway which ran a forty eight mile route from Ennis to Kilkee with a separate branch to Kilrush and Cappagh Pier on the Shannon Estuary.
Charles Stewart Parnell turned the first sod of the West Clare Railway in 1885 and it commenced service in 1887.
A service which was known for its unreliability, it switched from steam powered engines in 1952 to more modern diesel engines but continued to operate at a loss. Improvements in road transport accelerated the decline of the line.
Today marks the closure of the line by CIÉ (Córas Iompair Éireann), as part of its rationalisation plans.
Train driver Paddy Hanrahan will continue working on the line as it is closed. He describes the railway's demise as very sad.
Michael O’Loughlin worked on the branch line for fifty years and has walked the route in its entirety many times. Repair work was never too onerous a task and he always found local people very hospitable,
Anytime you were always welcome at any hour.
Local people are waiting to see how the new bus service will operate, but journey times will certainly be shorter. The bus is also less likely to be affected by adverse weather conditions. On more than one occasion, the train carriages on the coastal section of the line were blown off the tracks during stormy weather.
As Joe Conway recalls, safety measures such as the installation of a wind gauge at Quilty may have disrupted the service, but
There was no-one killed, it was a very lucky railway that way.
'Provincial News Round Up’ broadcast on Radio Éireann on 5 February 1961. The reporter is Karl Jones.
