Sligo-Derry rail link hopes are revived as group talks to Ryan
A MEETING last week between Transport Minister Eamon Ryan and a railway campaign group has re-opened the idea of restoring a rail link from Derry to Sligo.
The Into The West, which is based in Derry, met with Minister Ryan to discuss improved rail provision for the North West.
Among the topics discussed were a new rail service from Derry to Letterkenny; extending that service through Donegal to Sligo, to connect with the proposed Western Rail Corridor and a new direct rail line from the north west to Dublin, via Strabane and Tyrone. Minister Ryan expressed interest in the possibility of rail being restored to Letterkenny, as well as having a direct route to Dublin – and confirmed that he is working with Stormont Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon on a comprehensive review of the rail network across the island.
Into The West was founded in 2001 to campaign against a Stormont decision to close the Derry-Belfast railway line west of Coleraine.
Since then the group has successfully fought for an hourly service between Derry and Belfast, as well as for a new train station in the city’s Waterside.
The group is now lobbying for further feasibility studies into restoring rail from Derry to Letterkenny and from Derry to Portadown (via Strabane and Omagh).
And Into The West co-chair Steve Bradley, also spoke of their ambition to see a new rail line to Sligo.
He said: “Whilst there is much to do before any firm commitments can be given, the Minister reacted positively to the case for a new commuter rail route from Derry to Letterkenny, and to the possibility of a direct route to Dublin from Derry and Letterkenny.
“We also discussed our longerterm ambition of extending rail from Letterkenny through Donegal to Sligo, to connect with the proposed new ‘Western Rail Corridor’. That project seeks to create a direct rail link between Cork, Limerick, Galway and Sligo.
“By adding Letterkenny and Derry, you would not only connect every main town in the western half of the island by rail – you would also create a necklace of rail linking every key population centre in Ireland, from Dublin up to Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, Lisburn and Belfast, west to Derry and Letterkenny, south to Sligo, Galway, Limerick and Cork and then back up to Dublin via Waterford and Rosslare Europort.
“It would be a game changer for the island’s economy and connectivity, and a huge asset for Irish tourism,” he said.
At one time it was possible to travel by train from Derry to Sligo, although not through Donegal. You could travel on the Great Northern Railway from Derry, via Omagh, to Enniskillen, where you could get a train or later, a rail car, to Sligo on the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway, which brought you through Belcoo, Manorhamilton, Dromahair, Ballintogher, Ballygawley to Collooney, from where you could travel to Sligo, or indeed onto Limerick.
However, the last train to run from Enniskillen into Sligo was in September 1957 and that journey marked the end of both the Great Northern Railway and the Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway. You could also, at a time up the late 1950s, travel from Derry down through Donegal as far as Ballyshannon on the narrow gauge County Donegal Railways. Ballyshannon also had a station on the Great Northern Railway line but that would only bring you on towards Sligo as far as Bundoran.
Back in the 1800s plans were made to extend that line to Sligo and the extension was authorised in 1862 but it never went ahead. Down through the years there has been suggestions that there should be a rail link between Sligo and Derry and in 2017 Sligo County Council passed a motion supporting the idea.
In recent years some serious consideration was given to the idea by the administration in Northern Ireland.
In 2013, a Stormont document on the future of rail services did look at the option of a Derry-Sligo rail link through Donegal.
But the Department for Regional Development’s “Future Railway Investment Consultation” paper costed it at just under £1billon (€1.11bn) and because of the cost was put on the back burner.
It was estimated developing new links to Donegal would cost around £11m per new mile of railway. A rail link between Derry and Letterkenny would cost £242m, £506m to Donegal town and £924m to Sligo.