Members of Donegal County Council have officially pledged their support to a resortation of the railway link between Letterkenny and Derry.
Two motions urging the council to support the push for the restoration of the rail link was brought by Councillor Declan Meehan at Monday’s meeting.
The first involved establishing a feasability study into restoring the Letterkenny-Derry rail route, coinciding with a similar study in the North reviewing a potential Derry-Portadown link.
A second motion then proposed that a Council delegation seek a meeting with the newly-formed Irish Government to lobby for rail services to be restored in Donegal.
Chair of Into The West, a group advocating for the restoration of rail services in the West and North West, Steve Bradley, commented; “We’re very grateful to Clr Meehan for meeting us earlier this month and for his enthusiasm for bringing rail back to Letterkenny.”
“The All-Island Rail Strategy has recommended that Letterkenny should have its rail restored, and a unique window of opportunity exists right now to do so.”
“Firstly a dedicated €17bn infrastructure fund has been set up with the Apple Windfall Tax money, and the projects it will be spent on are due to be decided in the coming months.”
“Secondly, the Northern & Western Region of Ireland – which includes Donegal – has an under-performing economy, which led the EU to officially downgrade its status in 2020 from a ‘developed’ region to one that is merely now ‘in transition’. This introduces the possibility of EU funding for rail projects in Donegal – funding which will no longer be available once the region’s economy is eventually upgraded again.”
“So Cllr Meehan’s motion to Donegal County Council is extremely timely, and we’re very grateful for his support in proposing it.”
Into The West will also be sending delegations to Dublin and Stormont in the coming months to push further for the return of rail services in Tyrone and Donegal.
“Letterkenny is currently the 3rd largest town in the Republic without rail, and by 2035 it will be the largest,” Into The West said in a statement.
“It is essential that the unique window of opportunity presented by the Apple Windfall Tax and EU funding – as well as the recently announced €1bn for the Shared Island Fund – be used to ensure that Letterkenny gets its rail back before 2035.”
“Otherwise it won’t happen until the second-half of this century, which will be a massive failure. It’s fantastic that Donegal Council has agreed to be part of such a cross-border delegation, and we’re very grateful to Cllr Meehan and all councillors in the county for their support for the proposal.”
“We hope that elected representatives in Derry-Strabane, Fermanagh-Omagh and Mid-Ulster will now also give their support to what would be an extremely powerful cross-border delegation on rail – one which would be impossible for the governments in Dublin and Belfast to ignore.”
