What happened to Tralee & Dingle?

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In your report on the extension of the Gwili Railway to Abergwili Junction in issue 230, you mentioned that the nearby Swansea Vale Railway was one of the few heritage railways to close.

Another to suffer this same fate is the Tralee & Dingle Railway in County Kerry in south-west Ireland.

The disused platform at Blennerville station looking towards Tralee on July 17. DAVID BOSHER

Although this 32-mile line between the two towns closed to passengers in 1939 and to freight in 1953, two miles between a new station by the Aquadome at Tralee and Blennerville were reopened as a heritage railway in 1993, but by 2013 this had closed.

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According to its website, a consortium proposed reopening in 2015 but on visits to stay with a friend who lives in Tralee, both in 2016 and in June this year, there is so far no sign of this happening.

The track is still in situ but overgrown as are the two stations at Tralee and Blennerville.

Does anybody know why this line, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with the county town of Kerry at one end and the tourist attraction of the Blennerville Windmill at the other, had to close and what, if anything, is happening about the 2015 plan to reopen it?

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David Bosher, email

➜ The Tralee & Dingle Railway Preservation Society is aiming to reopen the line and has called on Kerry County Council to refurbish the track – Editor.

Read more Letters, Opinion, News and Views in Issue 232 of HR – on sale now!

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