Comment: What's another year in Navan rail line saga?

I've been waiting such a long time

Looking out for you,

But you're not here

What's another year?

So sang the great Johnny Logan back in 1980 and not too many years before the Navan rail line was being mooted as a vital piece of infrastructure that would be a 'gamechanger' for the Royal county.

Some 45 years on from the Meath resident's epic night in The Hague and the only new tracks coming out of Dunboyne are from the two-time Eurovision winner's home as we learn this week of a further delay to the project.

We now know the Railway Order for the Navan line, effectively the planning permission for the project, will not now be lodged until 2027.

It's a setback of a year based on what Irish Rail's Director of Capital Investment, Paul Hendrick told the Oireachtas Transport Committee back in January 2024, when he said the Railway Order would be submitted in the calendar year 2026.

Skip to last Friday and before the same Oireachtas Committee, where Mary Considine, CEO of Iarnród Éireann, revealed to Sinn Fein Transport spokesperson and Meath East TD, Darren O'Rourke that the Railway Order submission would be in by the end of 2027.

In the grand scheme of things and the near 30 year saga of bringing a rail line to the county town it barely skims the surface. As Johnny asked: 'What's Another Year?

But of course, it matters.

Toll prices will increase on the M3 Clonee to Kells motorway by 10 cents for all motorists alongside increases to the M50, Dublin tunnel, and the M4 Kilcock to Kinnegad.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) announced the toll increases will go into effect starting 1st January next year.

Most categories of vehicles on the M50 will see a 10 cent increase, while the Dublin tunnel toll will increase during peak hours for citybound traffic from €13 to €14 with off peak charges remaining unchanged. The M3 now gets its regular mention on the traffic bulletins, in the ignominious company of the Dunkettle Interchange and Jack Lynch Tunnel for daily delays and holdups.

Meanwhile, traffic congestion in Navan continues exasperate with the town struggling to cope with demand for parking. Dunshaughlin, another key link in the rail line plans has shown huge population growth in recent years but with little by way of travel options for the thousands of commuters now living there.

So, what's another year?

As Darren O'Rourke correctly points out "any delay at the initial planning and approval stage risks creating a domino effect, pushing the entire project further into the future." The people of Navan and environs have waited far too long now for this project and work on the ground must commence by 2030 as envisioned in the National Transport Authority's (NTA) Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy.

Young working couples and families who moved to Navan in the 90s in the belief that a daily commute by car could be eased by access to a rail line have now retired or will be by time one actually gets built.

Over four decades have passed since Johnny sung those famous lines. Will it be a third generation of Navan folk that's left waiting, such a long time?