All-island rail review could see Donegal reconnected to national network

Donegal could be in line to be reconnected to the national rail network, as Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan reiterated plans this week.

Cavan and Monaghan are also in line to join the link under proposals set out in the new all-island rail review to be published later this month. Donegal has been cut asunder since the 1960s and Minister Ryan said on Monday plans are being put in place.

Speaking in New York, he said a route running from the existing Dublin-Belfast line at Portadown, through Dungannon, Omagh, Strabane, Letterkenny and onto Derry will be proposed, following on from comments made on the scheme earlier this year.

The rollout of the plan deals with proposed rail investment over a 30-year period, short, medium and long-term, throughout the country.

“Those towns are not small towns and Donegal needs a public transport connection south,” Minister Ryan said. “It would not be cheap because building new railway lines is expensive but from Omagh north, there was an old railway line and we need to look at that configuration and see if we can revitalise it.

“If we don’t invest in the rest of the country, particularly in rail infrastructure, we would see an imbalance develop in the country. These are the sort of investments we need to make to guarantee the economic future of the country."

In 1959, the final journeys for many passengers in Donegal were made on lines that spread out from the headquarters in Stranorlar to the likes of Ballyshannon, Killybegs, Donegal Town and Letterkenny. 

Other lines to Burtonport, Buncrana, and Carndonagh - operated by the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company - had ceased beforehand. Three stations in east Donegal -  Porthall, Carrigans and St Johnston - remained open until 1965 - as they were on the Great Northern Line from Derry to Portadown that ran initially on the west bank of the Foyle before crossing over at Lifford and into Strabane, and then onto Omagh.