Letterkenny is the largest town in the State without a plan for rail – and within a decade it will have become the largest Irish town without any rail services, campaigners have warned.
The 2022 census identified Letterkenny as one of Ireland’s fastest-growing towns, with a population of just over 22,500 people, making it the third largest town without any connection to the Irish rail network – behind Swords, County Dublin, which has a population 41,000, and Navan, County Meath, with a population 34,000.
However, Swords will see its rail restored as part of the proposed new cross-Dublin Metrolink project, which after years of delays is now moving forwards with a scheduled completion date of 2035. And earlier this month it was also announced that consultants have now been appointed for the project to restore rail to Navan.
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. However, the current timescale envisaged in the strategy for restoring the Derry-Portadown line is after 2040 at the earliest, and it is only planned to reopen Letterkenny-Derry after that point. 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.
Rail campaigners Into The West are therefore 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.
Campaign group Into The West point out that restoring the 35km rail link between Letterkenny and Derry would deliver huge benefits. 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 per cent 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.
With Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry the designated Cancer Centre for Donegal, and both Derry and Letterkenny having growing universities that are undergoing continual expansion, including a number of nursing and medical places at Magee which are reserved for Republic of Ireland based students, campaigners say there is therefore a clear need to better connect the two main towns in the north west city region.
Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley, said by 2035 Letterkenny will have a population approaching 30,000 people, and will be, by far, the largest disconnected town in the Republic.
“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.”
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