Rail travel in Northern Ireland: Students and campaigners have their say
Claire Dickson
At the beginning of the 20th century, Ireland boasted a train network which served every county on the island, but within Northern Ireland in the present day, it is only the east of the country which is covered by rail connections. The Scoop spoke to several young people living in Northern Ireland regarding how they feel about train services in Northern Ireland alongside several campaign groups who are positive about making progress on the issue.
Ciara Nicholson, 25, who has recently graduated from Queen’s University with an MA in History, comments that “it’s frustrating that so many of the lines/railway stations in NI were shut down in the 1950s and 1960s. I live in Banbridge in County Down, where there used to be a railway station. If there was a train that went to Belfast from Banbridge, like there used to be, it would provide another public transport option for commuters to Belfast. The roads would therefore be less busy, which would not only be good for the environment but good for the condition of our roads.”
Theo Hayward, a 17-year-old from Islandmagee who commutes to school in Belfast on a daily basis praised the public transport that over the past seven years had given him and his peers free travel and “saved (them) thousands of pounds”: “generally the trains are clean, relatively reliable and comfortable and the staff are very pleasant.” He argued that a more environmentally-friendly way of doing things would be preferable, saying “they’re sloth in moving towards renewable fuel sources and the entire train network is reliant on fossil fuels to operate.” He noted that a host of problems such as noise pollution, high carbon emissions and rising costs to run the services come as a result of this. It is in his view, infrastructure for an electronic fleet that would improve the rail situation in Northern Ireland.
Charlotte Jennings is a Politics and International Relations student at Queen’s who has moved to Belfast having previously lived in London and southern England. She commented on the contrast between train services there compared with those services in Northern Ireland; “The lack of railways across the country is an issue. In the south of England for example I can get to even small, irrelevant towns and villages no one has ever heard of whereas you guys can’t even get to certain counties.”
The Armagh Portadown Railway society has come about with the aim of advancing the education of the public with regards to the history and development of railways in the Portadown and Armagh region. It also seeks to collect and preserve railway heritage to the benefit of the local community. William Hutchinson, Chairman of the society commented that for improvement with regards to rail travel in Northern Ireland to take place, it needs to be available to places like Armagh, Enniskillen, Dungannon and Omagh: “If the Department for Infrastructure decide to extend the rail network, they need to ensure that destinations reflect where people want to travel to in 2023. For instance, to serve airports, universities, hospitals, concert arenas etc, a loop could be brought into the centre at the Maze. We need to extend our rail services over the border as well to attract investment for all Island funds.”
Another campaign group who contribute towards debates on the issue of better rail services in Northern Ireland is ‘Into The West’, which was set up in 2004 to oppose a plan at Stormont to close the Derry-Belfast rail line west of Coleraine. They succeeded in saving the line and more recently have expanded their focus to campaign for the return of rail to all counties, which would return rail as an option for journeys from Derry/Londonderry and Letterkenny to Dublin, Sligo and Galway. The group looks positively to the future with the announcement of an All Island Rail Review to be conducted by Stormont and the Irish government and the publication of the British Government Union Connectivity Report which recommended the restoration of rail services from Derry, Letterkenny, Dublin and Sligo.
Claire Dickson is Deputy Head of The Scoop and a Politics student at Queen’s University Belfast