Rail investment is good news for long term sustainable transport links for region

UNDERSTANDABLY with Dundalk long being regarded as a “railway town” because of the presence of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) works for decades there was considerable interest last week in the announcement of a multimillion-euro investment in the Dublin to Belfast line.

That investment will increase the frequency and comfort of the service not just between the two main cities in the country, but in the service from Dundalk where it is anticipated that there will be an hourly Enterprise train to and from Dundalk to Dublin and Belfast.

That prospect will be a tremendous boost to this region and will enhance the town’s status in many aspects of commerce, industry and connectivity.

Indeed some will recall that at one time, during the 1960’s when there was an very infrequent train service to Dublin from Dundalk, and later in the 1970’s because of the Northern Troubles when there were regular attacks on the rail line, trains and bridges - with bus services regularly having to ferry stranded rail passengers around affected parts of the rail network between Belfast and the border - there was the distinct prospect that Dundalk station, would, like others in the country, become redundant, not because of lack of investment in the railways, but because of the political turmoil.

Thankfully the service survived, albeit with a token service at times, but in recent years there has been a considerable improvement not just in the Enterprise trains stopping at Dundalk, but in the commuter trains.

Now under the new investment announced last week as part of the Peace Plus programme the existing fleet of four Enterprise trains will be replaced by eight modern and sustainable trains initially running on electricity and battery power.

The cost will be considerable at €165m. but it is thought that most of the investment will be in the electrification of the line and the new trains.

The electrification will allow for more frequent use of the existing railway tracks by installing modern signalling, and it is not anticipated that there will be a need for a new rail track, especially between Belfast and Malahide, where the DART service joins the main line.

When the first Enterprise seven carriage steam train opened between Dublin and Belfast - a distance of 180km - on August 11th, 1947 naturally there was great excitement in this part of the world since possibly some of the engines and carriages were built and serviced in the Ardee Road works of the GNR.

Now the age of steam which gave way to the diesel powered train, will see, in a few years time, battery/electric hybrid trains, linking the two main cities, with a stop in between for our town.

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That’s progress and with more and more emphasis on sustainable transport, Dundalk is sure to benefit.