Letterkenny is now the largest town in Ireland without a rail plan.
With a population of just over 22,500 people, Letterkenny is currently the third largest town without any connection to the Irish rail network – with plans to restore rail to Swords, Co Dublin (population 41,000) and Navan, Co. Meath (Population 34,000) by 2035.
Campaigners of ‘ Into The West’ are calling for a portion of the €14bn tax windfall from Apple to be designation to the infrastructure to bring the north west region up to speed with the rest of the country.
Restoring a rail link between Letterkenny and Derry was recommended in the All-Island Rail Strategy, which was published in July of this year.
That strategy proposed to link the route with a reopened Derry-Portadown line, to give Letterkenny and north-east Donegal a direct rail route to both Dublin and Belfast.
The current timescale envisaged in the strategy for restoring the Derry-Portadown line is after 2040 at the earliest, and it is planned to reopen Letterkenny-Derry after that point.
Rail campaigners Into The West say: “That not only means that Letterkenny realistically won’t see trains return until the second half of this century, but it also places Donegal’s rail future entirely in the hands of Stormont.
Campaigners are calling instead for planning to begin immediately on a proposal to restore rail between Letterkenny and Derry by 2035. And they’re calling for the new Infrastructure Fund that is being set up with the ‘Apple Windfall Tax’ money to be used to fund the proposal.
Restoring the 35km rail link between Letterkenny and Derry would deliver huge benefits, says Into The West.
“Letterkenny is part of the North-west City Region, along with Derry and Strabane – and the highest concentration of cross-border commuting on the island occurs between North-East Donegal and Derry City every day, with 38% of all cross-border trips happening there. Yet the vast majority take place by car because of limited bus options and the complete absence of rail. This has also resulted in Letterkenny becoming a very car-dominated town, with a level of congestion you would expect to find only in much larger places.
“A new rail link to Letterkenny – with additional halts at Manorcunningham and Newtoncunningham – would help ease traffic pressure on the town by providing people with an alternative option to driving.”
Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley, commented: “The recent announcement to extend rail to Navan is great news for Meath but bad news for Donegal. Because it places Letterkenny in the unenviable position of now being Ireland’s largest town without any plans for rail. By 2035 Letterkenny will have a population approaching 30,000 people, and will be by-far the largest disconnected town in the Republic. This unwanted title should be ringing alarm bells for everyone across north-east Donegal. It was good that the All-Ireland Rail Strategy recommended restoring rail to Letterkenny – but not that it recommended only doing so after the NI government has got round to reopening Derry-Portadown. Stormont has consistently shown itself to be politically unstable, strategically indecisive and financially constrained – so placing Donegal’s rail future in its hands would be deeply unwise”.
Mr Bradley continued “The good news is that there is a better way. The Irish government has a kitty of over €14bn in tax money from Apple that it has committed to spend solely on infrastructure. So now is the time for all of Donegal – from its newly-elected TDs to its council, Chambers of Commerce and ordinary citizens – to join together and push for a small portion of that infrastructure fund to be used to restore rail between Letterkenny and Derry.”
Into The West are calling for the five TDs elected to represent Donegal in last month’s election to work with the County Council in lobbying the new government to ensure that Letterkenny rail is included in the list of projects that will be funded by its one-off €14bn infrastructure fund.
