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By 1848, construction of the railway line west from Dublin had reached Mullingar and the following year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer agreed to advance a loan of £500,000 towards extending the line to Galway. The board of the Midland and Great Western Railway entered into a contract with William Dargan to construct the entire length of line from Mullingar to Galway. Dargan’s success in building the Howth to Dublin railway had earned him a bonus of £300 and this he used to set himself up a a railway contractor.

The mid-19th century was an era of little movement of people for social or pleasure purposes. In the post-Famine era, it was only business people of necessity, those who were emigrating or those whose financial circumstances allowed who travelled. Railway travel had come Galway in 1851 and there were a few horse drawn omnibuses operating between the city and the village of Salthill, which was really a rural backwater. But, it was becoming a fashionable place to live and was developing as a tourist destination. It was therefore no surprise when a tramway system between the city and the village was proposed.