Campaign launched to reopen ‘North West Rail Corridor’

A campaign has been launched calling for the reopening of two key railways that served Derry city until they were closed in the 1950s and 60s.

Local group ‘Into The West’ campaigns for the improvement and expansion of rail across counties Derry, Donegal, Tyrone and Fermanagh.

The organisation was founded in 2004 when they successfully defeated a proposal by civil servants to shut the Derry-Belfast rail line west of Ballymena. Since then they have also secured a major track upgrade of the Derry-Coleraine line and a new transport hub at Derry’s historic Duke Street station.

In recent years the organisation has broadened its focus onto making the case for the restoration of key rail routes across the west of Ulster.

And now they are launching a campaign for what they describe as “the number one rail-reopening priority on the island”.

It is almost 60 years since trains last ran on the Great Northern line between Derry and Portadown, with stops at Strabane, Omagh and Dungannon before travelling on directly to Dublin and Belfast.

The line was controversially closed in 1965 in a decision that ended a century of rail access for Tyrone and Donegal and stripped the west of Ulster of most of its infrastructure.

The closure also severed a vital link between Dublin, Belfast and the north-west of the island, and ushered in decades of car dependency here.

The railway line between Letterkenny and Derry had been previously closed in 1953, which greatly impacted the city’s role as a key transport hub and regional capital.

Desire

Since these closures two whole generations have been raised in Tyrone and Donegal without access to a transport mode that much of the rest of the island takes for granted. And that has had a negative impact upon the economic growth, population and tourist appeal of the North-West and the west of Ulster as a whole.

The public’s desire to see rail return and expand across the North-West has remained strong ever since.

This was shown earlier this year when the public consultation for the cross-border ‘All-Island Rail Review Strategy’ had its highest number of contributions from the Fermanagh-Omagh and Derry-Strabane Districts.

This confirmed the huge interest that exists across the north-west of the island for the return and expansion of rail within this region.
Into The West have therefore launched a major campaign that seeks to turn that aspiration into a reality.

They are calling for the restoration of what they have christened ‘The North West Rail Corridor’ - which combines two former rail segments into a new corridor reconnecting most of the largest towns in west Ulster to the island’s rail network.

The North West Rail Corridor route would see trains start in Letterkenny and travel through Derry, Strabane/Lifford, Omagh and Dungannon to Portadown, from where they would continue onwards to either Dublin or Belfast via the existing rail network. Indicative journey times from Derry would be 15mins to Strabane, 20mins to Letterkenny and just over 3hrs direct to Dublin.

A visual showing indicative journey times between the towns on the NWRC and Belfast/Dublin.

Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley, commented : “The North West Rail Corridor is an exciting proposal to reopen a much-missed spine of rail that previously connected the North-West of the island to Dublin and Belfast.

“It would mark the return of rail to two of Ireland’s largest counties – Tyrone and Donegal – and put key towns like Letterkenny, Strabane/ Lifford and Omagh back on the rail map.

“By linking these towns and counties directly to the island’s main economic and tourism hubs, the Corridor would enable employment, tourism and population growth in towns that currently feel neglected and left on the periphery.

“And it would also help bind the North West City Region of Derry, Letterkenny and Strabane much closer together.”

Mr Bradley continued: “No other initiative would have as profound an impact across the north-west as restoring its rail access would.

“And no other rail project on the island would connect such a large number of people across so many significant towns and counties. That’s why the North West Rail Corridor should be the top priority rail reopening for governments north and south, and the number one focus for cross-border funding. For too long the north-west of the island has been left disconnected, disadvantaged and disregarded.

“Committing to the North West Rail Corridor would enable the authorities north and south to finally prove they are serious about addressing that”.

Support

Into The West have launched this campaign in-advance of the release of the findings from the ‘All-Island Rail Review Strategy’, which is likely to be published in the New Year.

They aim to galvanise public support across the region to influence that report’s findings and to build a head of steam around making the North West Rail Corridor a priority reopening on both sides of the border.

Into The West highlight that the North West Rail Corridor would also serve as a foundation block for further rail re-openings across the West of Ulster.

Mr Bradley explained: “Fermanagh has been left without rail for 70 years, and the UK Government’s 2021 ‘Union Connectivity Review’ identified Enniskillen’s lack of trains as a particular barrier to its tourism potential.

“The most likely way rail will ever return to Enniskillen would be via Omagh – so realistically the only way to get trains back to Fermanagh is by reopening the North West Rail Corridor. In addition - Mid-Ulster is the fastest growing part of NI and a significant industrial centre.”

He continued: “Restoring the North West Rail Corridor to Dungannon could therefore enable future re-openings north from there to fast growing towns like Cookstown and Magherafelt”.

Public events

Into The West are holding a series of public events about the North West Rail Corridor and their campaign to reopen it in each of the main towns along the route.

The dates and locations for these are as follows :

DERRY: Monday 7th November, 7pm (Holywell Trust, 10-14 Bishop Street, BT48 6PW).

LETTERKENNY: Tuesday 8th November, 7pm (Station House Hotel, Lower Main Street, F92 ERV1

OMAGH: Wednesday 9th November, 7pm (Strule Arts Centre, Townhall Square, BT78 1BL)

DUNGANNON: Monday 14th Nov, 7pm (Tower Room, Ranfurly House, Hill of the O’Neill, BT70 1AB

STRABANE: Thursday 17th November, 7pm (Alley Theatre, Railway Street, BT82 8EF).

The Derry, Letterkenny and Omagh events will feature a guest speaker from the inspirational ‘Campaign for Borders Rail’, which successfully lobbied for the reopening of 35 miles of railway line through the rural Borders region of Scotland in 2015.
Anyone interested in finding out more about the North West Rail Corridor & the campaign to re-open it is encouraged to attend these free meetings.

Into The West are also calling on everyone who would like to see this vital transport corridor restored and rail returned to Donegal to visit their website (www.IntoTheWest.org) and sign their petition, which can be found on Change.org (search for ‘Restore the North West Rail Corridor’).

Mr Bradley concluded: “In an era of climate change, poor air quality, increasing road congestion and unbalanced regional development, it is no longer acceptable for the north-west corner of the island to be left almost entirely without access to rail.

“There is a very strong case for the restoration of the North West Rail Corridor - but it won’t happen without a huge display of public support and pressure.

“It is therefore essential that people in Derry, Donegal, Tyrone and beyond get behind this campaign to show politicians north and south that the public demand the reintroduction of rail across this region.

“It’s finally time to close the huge gap in the map of the island’s rail provision”.