Belfast and Eastern corridor are by far the largest generators of wealth on this island. Greater Belfast is the engine of the NI economy and that’s not going to change. A high-speed rail link from Belfast - Dublin -Cork links the three largest economic centres on the island. That’s just reality. Also worth noting that upgrades to the Belfast - Derry line must be funded by Belfast. This new line would be funded by Belfast, Dublin and Brussels as it’s a cross-border project with Belfast paying a smaller share proportionally.
its not an either or situation. If money can be fantasised for the absurd Irish Sea bridge then a small portion of that projected cost could be used to electrify the NI network and improve services to not only Derry but the likes of Enniskillen and Armagh.
NI Executive is responsible for the area of Northern Ireland, not ROI. Being from the Northwest there is systematic underinvestment here but also in the rest of Northern Ireland outside Belfast.
I’m not sure why you would prioritise and raise the necessity for electrification to Enniskillen, they don’t have a railway line at all and have extremely low population density. So why would you be jumping the gun to suddenly have services there when we have been waiting for improvements for decades, now suddenly you want to prioritise Enniskillen, a town of 13,000, but yet you think the line to Derry doesn’t need to be doubled?
The Derry line alone carried 3 million passengers last year. At the absolute bear minimum, it is not too much of an ask to have the whole line doubled.
Dublin or Cork are not a priority to me. Nor are they important. This line will once again only benefit people in Southeastern Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland needs to improve it’s transport network outside Belfast. You have already had investment through the Glider scheme and now want the York Street Interchange. What have we got? A few passing loops with very limited changes to services. We still only have an hourly train service to a city of 110,000, that is a dire disgrace and well beyond excuse.
There are also a few roads that could do with being dualled, including the remaining sections of the A2 to Limavady and the A26 to Coleraine. Once again these roads will stay as single carriageway in preference for more dualling in Belfast and County Down, which is not really needed and would help less than our improvements would.
As usual the NI Executive continues to invest in Belfast and SE NI, continually bringing it ahead of the rest of NI, creating a substantial gap in infrastructure that never will be filled.