By Emma Ryan
THE extension of the rail service to Donegal is officially on track following the publication of the draft All-Island Strategic Rail Review.
The Department of Transport and the Department for Infrastructure in the North published a joint draft report of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review which aims to put communities across the island on track for a new age of rail.
Despite much speculation over the past few months, the review officially includes a recommendation to extend the railway into Tyrone, from Portadown to Dungannon, Omagh, Strabane to Derry and onto Donegal to Letterkenny.
The Review’s implementation timelines involve three periods: short-term interventions to be delivered by 2030, medium-term interventions to be delivered between 2030 and 2040, and long-term interventions to be delivered between 2040 and 2050.
Given the scale of the project to reintroduce the trains in Donegal, it is expected that this route would be considered as a long term intervention.
Donegal Sinn Féin TDs Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn have welcomed the All Island Rail Review but called on the government to ‘step up and deliver an action plan’ with clear timelines to invest in and grow our rail networks.
Deputy Doherty said, “The review is also further proof that successive governments have not only neglected, but dismantled the rail infrastructure in Ireland and specifically in the North West.
“This is also an all-island review and is a departure from the norm, which is very much welcome.
“The government must now consider the recommendations, and commit to an action plan to invest and grow our rail networks.
“This must not become one of the many reports that just sit on a shelf while this current government is in office,” said Deputy Doherty.
Deputy MacLochlainn also said the government now needs to deliver an action plan with clear timelines.
“In particular, we need to see movement on rail infrastructure being brought to the North West.”
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