The train now departing from platform 9 ¾.

It brought a wry smile to my face. I almost broke into a chorus of “We’ll meet again” last Wednesday at the station. Fianna Fail and Greens united on the ground in the south east to oppose rail closures while their colleagues in power did everything to see the line shut. And be cetain that we will meet again. Its gut wrenching to watch the Greens and FF turn up to be filmed by RTE when baring FF’s Tony Dempsey they did nothing about stopping Dempsey and Cuffe. Irish Rail brought forward their opening of the Dunboyne link to coincide with the announced withdrawal of service between Rosslare and Waterford in another spoiler move of theirs. Dan Boyle’s fleeting appearance on the rail protest brought a sense of celebrity to the campaign but nothing else.theirs!

I’ve always been cynical about the Greens but not even I could have thought that they’d stoop this low. On the night of the first protest meeting in Wellington Bridge a Waterford Green assured me that Minister Cuffe would contact me to discuss the matter. I sent him the 2003 report on the line, the rebuttal of costings sent to him by Irish Rail. Did he contact me?
When the Irish Times came looking for him to comment he took his cue from the old Dr Hook song, “Sylvia’s Mother”, he was too busy to come to the phone! One local green councillor was busy spoofing “With Ciaran Cuffe in place as Minister for Sustainable Transport, we have an open ear. We need however to make our own strong case. We need to make sure that we, together with Irish Rail, market this line properly, in order to give it a chance. There is a bit of momentum gathering here and that's good. But don't stop here, so please tell your friends” All of this was done but to no avail.


The Greens aren’t interested in Co Wexford while Fianna Fail are only interseted in bailing out developers. So long as Fianna Fail will tolerate minority middle class issues they’ll indulge Gormley and his party. So long as the Greens can ignore the rest of the country, FF get on with bailing out their supporters and they’ll throw the kitchen at it!
So right now the spin is that the line will close, not so! In fact Irish Rail must provide and maintain the line so that if another operator wishes to utilise the line they will have access and that the NTA will support the Rail Partnership model and the Southern & Eastern Regional Authority in their work to develop links. So in effect the ball is in our court, Irish Rail, the Greens and FF are off the pitch. Let us who live in the area now plan how best to deliver what is in the interest of thise who live here.