Proposed new rail line in North has ‘real potential’ to restore service to Donegal, says Ryan

Eamon Ryan has told TDs he has held a number of meetings on the restoration of train services to Co Donegal. Meetings with the engineering firm Arup and a transport expert appointed by former British prime minister Boris Johnson centred around the construction of a new rail line from Portadown with a spur to Letterkenny.

Mr Ryan said the line would link the towns of Dungannon, Omagh and Strabane. In October of last year, then Minister for Infrastructure in the North, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, said the construction of a line between Portadown and Derry was one of number of projects being “explored”.

Such a line previously existed, as did a rail connection between Strabane and Letterkenny, but all have been closed for many decades, with the last train services in Donegal ceasing at the end of 1959.

The Minister for Transport was answering questions about the likely publication date of the All-Island Rail Review, which he suggested could not be published until the restoration of the North’s Assembly.

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“The draft report is currently being finalised by the consultants for submission to the departments,” he said. “The finalised draft report will then be submitted for approval to both Ministers and ultimately the Government and the Executive. Once these necessary approvals have been secured I will obviously then publish the report.”

However, when pressed on a timeline for the publication he added: “Please God, the Assembly will return, but in the absence of that we do not have full control over what we can do with the report. I have to bow to the diplomatic reality that we are in.”

Asked about the potential for restoring a rail link to Letterkenny after more than 60 years, Mr Ryan said “we should look at returning rail connectivity to Donegal and improving it to the northwest. This will not be cheap. I had a series of meetings with Arup and the UK rail transport expert who was asked by the then prime minister Boris Johnson to examine some large projects.

“I thought providing access to Donegal would see the development of the existing line on the north Antrim coast. In those discussions what started to come into view was the possibility of a spur from Portadown through Dungannon, Omagh and Strabane.

“The line would have to have a spur to Letterkenny in order to ensure a connection to Donegal. It would be transformative for the relationship between Letterkenny and Derry, as well as Strabane, Omagh and Dungannon. It would be of huge benefit to the island and would improve island connectivity.”

The Minister said the British government would be “the key funders of such a line”.

Pearse Doherty, one of a number of TDs to put questions to the Minister regarding aspects of the report, said there had been a “chronic underinvestment in public transport” in the northwest, and while the question of a preferred route for any restored train service “was probably a discussion for another day”… “it is the principle we have to have first”.

Mr Ryan responded that in his opinion “the Dungannon, Omagh, Strabane route and on to Letterkenny has real potential in terms of what it would do to what are not insignificant towns”.

During the exchange the Minister also said the upgrading of rail services to the country’s deep water ports “would be a strategic investment on the part of the State that makes sense to me”, and he also said he favoured the restoration of rail services between Wexford and Waterford.