This would be an additional rail connection to Belfast, achieved by reopening the rail link through Portadown, with the route travelling via Strabane, Omagh, Portadown and then through Lisburn into Belfast. The results of that review were published last month.įor Derry, the proposals include one of great significance. The all-island rail review was launched in 2021 by the South’s transport minister and Green Party leader Eamonn Ryan along with the then NI infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon. Plans recently announced by the two administrations of the Republic and Northern Ireland indicate a possible partial reversal of past decisions closing rail lines. Neighbouring towns to the West and the South such as Letterkenny, Strabane and Omagh no longer have any rail connectivity. Derry is the end of the line, despite at one point in the city’s history having four stations and lines emerging out from the city. Another can be seen clearly by looking at a map of the rail system. This is just one element of the transport infrastructure weakness in the North West region. It has been described as the most dangerous in Ireland, with 47 people killed in road accidents since plans were announced in 2007 to significantly upgrade it. In particular, the very high number of accidents and deaths along this road.
Much of the immediate concern today is focused on the A5 road, between Derry and Dublin.
It was back in the 1960s that there were government plans to provide a motorway link from Belfast to Derry – which has still not happened and probably now never will. They are not alone in this: there are also complaints from Sligo, Fermanagh and elsewhere in the West expressing similar concerns.Īfter a long campaign, parts of the A6 road between Derry and Belfast have been upgraded - though it is still not a dual carriageway between Dungiven and Castledawson. Derry and Donegal are not only marginalised by their geographic position on the periphery of the island of Ireland, but they are also very badly served by the transport infrastructure.
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