Rail campaigners are highlighting 60 years since the closure of the Derry-Portadown railway line.
Into the West said February 14, 1965, was the day that the last train ran on the ‘Derry Road’ rail route between Derry and Portadown.
Rail west of the Bann was “decimated” — erasing it entirely from Co Tyrone and Donegal in the Republic, whilst also severing Derry’s direct rail route to Dublin.
The group hopes that the anniversary will encourage action amongst elected representatives to ensure that the restoration of the rail route is made a priority project moving forward.
That line started at Foyle Road in Derry before travelling south through three stations in Donegal (Carrigans, St Johnston and Porthall) and then crossing the River Foyle at Strabane — after which it travelled on to Portadown via Omagh and Dungannon.
In 1962, the Stormont Government published a report on the future of rail in Northern Ireland.
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Into the West said: “Known as ‘The Benson Report’ it was very much a product of its time, and part of a series of similar reports in the early 1960s which tilted NI’s balance of investment and resources in favour of the east of the Bann.
“Benson recommended that the Derry-Portadown line should be shut, despite it registering strong results over the years for both freight and passenger numbers. Unsurprisingly Stormont agreed.
“As a result, the last train to run along the Derry-Portadown route left Derry on 14th February 1965 — just four days after Stormont had announced that NI’s new university would be located in Coleraine rather than the Maiden City.
“The track on the Derry-Portadown route was lifted almost immediately afterwards, and the land quickly sold off to ensure the line couldn’t reappear again.
“Co Donegal and Tyrone were left without any rail, and Derry was stripped of its direct rail route to Dublin. Rail campaigners have therefore christened the event as the St Valentine’s Day Massacre for rail in the north west.”
The All-Island Rail Strategy published last year recommended reopening the route — plus an onward link between Derry and Letterkenny — with a timescale for doing so in the 2040s at the earliest.
Into The West have rejected this timing, and instead proposed that the line should be made one of the seven priority projects arising from the All-Island Strategy.
They are also calling on the Irish Government to fast-track restoration of the Letterkenny-Derry link, rather than the current proposal that it should only happen after Stormont restores Derry-Portadown.
They point out that the Irish government’s €17.1bn Apple Windfall Tax infrastructure fund provides a perfect opportunity to expedite the return of rail between Derry and Letterkenny within the next decade.
Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley, commented: “In the decades that followed (the line’s closure) this entire region has been held back — with metrics like wage levels, unemployment and disposable income showing that it continually under-performs.
“And Letterkenny continues to be choked by the kind of congestion you would only expect to find in a much larger town. This is the price that people here are paying for this region’s lack of decent infrastructure. Especially Tyrone and Donegal, which suffer from the lack of even a basement-level of connectivity”.
To help raise awareness of the 60th anniversary, Into The West have produced a series of large banners which will be installed at key locations around Tyrone and Donegal in the coming weeks.
They are also seeking to coordinate a cross-border delegation from the four councils in the north west (Derry-Strabane, Donegal, Fermanagh-Omagh and Mid-Ulster) to meet with key Ministers in Belfast and Dublin to demand that the Letterkenny-Derry-Portadown rail corridor be made a priority project.
The Department for Infrastructure and Irish Government’s Department for Transport have been contacted.