West=On=Track -News

One in four workers commute from outside the county

Galway City Tribune Sept 25th 2009 

Report highlights need for commuter rail services

MORE than a quarter of all workers in the western region travel from as far away as Mayo and Clare to work in Galway City, according to a new report by the Western Development Commission (WDC).

The report, which is based on previously unreleased data from the 2006 Census, has important implications for the provision of transport, infrastructure and services to and from the city for policy makers.

The report, 'Travel to Work and Labour Catchments in the Western Region', shows that the Galway city labour catchment is by far the largest in the western region, making up 26% of all workers within the western Region, with 64,455 people living within the labour catchment and at work in April 2006. The next four largest labour catchments (Ennis, Sligo, Letterkenny and Castlebar) account for a further 30% combined.

The number of people commuting to Galway city from the north of the county, where Tuam is the largest town, is greater than the number commuting to Galway city from the the east, which contains the Loughrea labour catchment, which in turn is greater than the number commuting from the south, in which the Gort labour catchment is the biggest. Yet it is the east of the county that is getting commuter rail transport first.

"There is significant congestion on the current primary road network into Galway city, particularly the N17 and N18, suggesting latent demand for commuter rail services," the report states.