Record summer rail usage for Derry's Rail Station

Local campaigners ‘Into The West’ have revealed that Derry’s rail service has just experienced its busiest ever Summer – as well as the two busiest months in its history. 

Figures secured from Translink show that over 173,000 passengers used Derry’s Waterside rail station across June, July and August of 2022 – the highest ever Summer demand for rail locally, and a 22% increase on the previous busiest Summer in 2019.

In addition, the record monthly figure for passenger numbers here was also broken not once but TWICE this Summer.

The previous record month was August 2019 when 52,241 passengers travelled through Waterside Station.

That was beaten in June this year when the station carried more than 57,000 passengers – only for that figure to also be exceeded two months later when more than 63,000 passengers used the station in August.

In total over a quarter of a million people have travelled by rail from Derry so far in 2022-23 (starts April 2022) - putting 2022-23 on track to be the busiest ever year for rail locally.   

However - rail campaigners Into The West are at pains to highlight that this record demand has occurred despite a summer of continual disruption for rail passengers locally.

And also occurred despite the ongoing disparity in rail services that stations west of the Bann suffer when compared to those in the East.  

Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley, explains: “These latest figures are fantastic, and show that passenger numbers continue to grow all the time in Derry and the North-West.

"Its proof that there is huge untapped demand for rail within our city, and that people here value the option of travelling by rail.

"What is particularly remarkable is that the two busiest ever months for rail locally have occurred during a Summer in which the Derry to Belfast line suffered frequent problems.

"First we had the ridiculous situation whereby Translink kept diverting at least 4 trains on the Derry-Belfast service every day to instead run between Belfast and Portrush –  forcing passengers for NI’s second largest city to change at Coleraine and sometimes wait up to an hour for a connecting service.

"To prioritise the small coastal town of Portrush over one of the island’s biggest cities in this way - reducing Derry to the status of an unimportant branch line in the process - is completely unacceptable.

"We are making our view clear to Translink that this must not happen again next Summer, and we call on the Council and groups like Derry Chamber of Commerce to do likewise.

"Secondly, we received regular reports from passengers over the Summer regarding general problems on the Derry-Belfast line – from signalling and maintenance issues to bus replacement services.

"All of which impacted the reliability and convenience of using rail form Derry. And finally there is also the fact that Derry receives a significantly poorer level of service than that received by every single rail station East of the Bann on the Belfast line. Derry only has one train every two hours on a Sunday, for example, whilst Coleraine and all stations in the east have an hourly service.

Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley

"And Derry has only one morning service that reaches Belfast before 9am, whereas Coleraine has four and Portush has two. For rail usage to continue to boom locally despite these challenges is truly remarkable - and it raises the obvious question of just how high rail demand would be if we had a proper service here?

"We’d therefore like to thank the people of the North-West for continuing to support local rail services in ever-growing numbers, and ensure them that we continue to do everything we can to fight for much better services here for them." 

This record-breaking Summer for rail from Derry represents a continuation of the remarkable growth in demand since the city gained an hourly service to Belfast in 2018 and a new train station in 2019.

In 2016 Derry’s now-demolished Waterside Station was ranked as only the 17th busiest out of the 54 stations on the Northern Irish network. By March 2022 the station that replaced it had risen to being the 9th most popular station – and Into The West are confident that it will continue to climb that league table in the years to come.

The 2018 introduction of an hourly service between Derry and Belfast (though not on Sundays) specifically resulted in a 61% increase in passenger numbers through Waterside Station over the following two years.

Steve Bradley concluded: “All the evidence continues to show that if you improve rail services from Derry people will use it in record numbers. It really is a case of ‘Build it and they will come’.

"It’s therefore time for Translink and Stormont to address the clear East-West discrimination in services that exists on the railway line between Derry and Belfast, which is clearly suppressing the true demand for rail from our city.

"And it is also now time to move the conversation onto how and when we extend rail from our city – restoring it to places like Letterkenny, Strabane and Omagh to deliver the kind of infrastructure that a regional capital is expected to have”.