Thursday, April 18, 2024

Into the West

The railway campaign group for Derry~Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone

New Stations

Double-tracking the Derry-Coleraine section of the line (or at least adding additional passing loops) would enable the introduction of new stops – to enable it to begin serving as a Derry-Coleraine regional/commuter rail network for the North-West.

As part of this, new stops should be introduced as follows :

  1. Limavady
  • A fast-growing town disconnected from the existing rail network despite being less than 3 miles of the Derry Line.
  • Ideal solution would be to re-route existing Derry-Coleraine line via Limavady. Could be completed as part of work to dual the overall line.
  1. City of Derry Airport (CoDA) / Eglinton
  • Currently none of the airports on the island are connected to rail.
  • A new multi-purpose rail halt at CoDA could serve four purposes :
    i. Rail halt for the Airport.
    ii. Rail halt for the fast-growing suburb of Eglinton (2011 population = 3,679).
    iii. Regional ‘Park & Rail’ facility, to reduce vehicles travelling into Derry, Limavady, Coleraine, Belfast.
    iv. Location for a new rail-side Enterprise Zone/Business Park. (There is a significant amount of under-utilised industrially-zoned land beside the Airport e.g. Longfield Industrial Estate East & West).
  1. Strathfoyle / Foyle Port
  • Fast-growing suburb of Derry. Located 4 miles from city centre, but feels physically very disconnnected from it.
  • Strathfoyle is situated right beside the railway track, and approx 1 mile from A2 dual-carriageway into Derry. Rail could therefore provide attractive alternative to road for travel into Derry.
  • Strathfoyle also located beside Foyle Port – which has significant land-holdings in the area, and is progressing plans to utilise them for data centres etc. A halt at Strathfoyle could also serve the Port too.
  • Further house-building could be encouraged at Strathfoyle once a rail halt was established there – integrating spatial planning, land-use development and sustainable travel.
  1. Ballykelly
  • HQ for 500 civil servants at the Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs.
  • Rail line also passes through huge 776 acre former Shackleton Barracks site, which is earmarked for further development.