Mayor believes 10,000 people-a-day will travel by train to Ryder Cup in Limerick

MAYOR of Limerick John Moran believes up to 10,000 people every day will use rail services to travel to Adare for the 2027 Ryder Cup.

It comes after the first citizen held talks with Irish Rail in the hope to get passenger services through the village by January 2027.

The Limerick to Foynes rail line is in the process of being rebuilt, initially for freight services from the port village.

PICTURES: Limerick Civic Trust autumn business lunch

But there are hopes that due to the fact the Ryder Cup is taking place, passenger services could also resume on the line - with a spur to Adare - which has been closed since 2001.

Limerick will become the official host city of the Europe v USA golf tournament from next week after the 2025 staging of the tournament concludes this Sunday in New York.

Speaking at the autumn business lunch of Limerick Civic Trust, Mayor Moran said the staging of the huge tournament represents a good excuse to “get some great projects finished”.

“It has also become an opportunity to get the train station in Adare re-opened for passenger traffic. We think up to 10,000 will travel to the Ryder Cup daily using the train system,” he said.

“If you'd said that to someone in Limerick a number of years ago, they’d have just laughed you out of the room, I'd think,” he told the gathering at The Savoy Hotel in the city centre.

He paid tribute to the chief executive of Irish Rail Jim Meade, who will retire later this year.

“We discussed this at a conference, because nobody believed it was possible. But it is possible. And in fairness to Irish Rail, they took back possession of the land and brought back the train station,” he revealed.

An issue remains with the Maigue Bridge outside Adare village.

But Mayor Moran said a solution has been arrived at on this.

“Jim Meade is a very pragmatic man if any of you know him. He realised it was going to be too hard to fix the bridge in time for the Ryder Cup. So he bought a temporary platform and put it at the other side of the bridge and will fix the bridge later. It's been an amazing collaboration between the people in council, roads and Irish Rail. There’s been a shared responsibility along the line,” he said.

A new rail stop in Adare means, it could be argued, that stops can also go in at Patrickswell, Raheen and the Crescent Shopping Centre, the mayor added.

“This has been part of the vision that a number of us have had for Limerick for a long time,” he said.

“It has woken up Government to what is really important to me as a message to the Mid-West is that if we put our minds to it, and we are given the funding and left do it, the Mid-West can deliver,” he said.

Limerick Civic Trust exists to undertake projects that make places more attractive, enjoyable and distinctive.

More at 061-313399, or www.limerickcivictrust.ie