Debate contribution: All-island Rail Network

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 27 February 2024.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

27 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

All-island Rail Network

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4238042

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank my colleague Mark Durkan for bringing the motion to the Assembly. We can hear the engagement, breadth of interest and passion that there is about our rail network, its past, its, at times frustrating, present, and its huge potential. We are debating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look again at how we move people and goods — the goods part is important — across the island. We can all look back, and it is important that we do, at a century of, frankly, devastation of the rail network on the island, particularly in the North and, particularly but not exclusively, to cross-border lines.

We can all regret that.

We cannot get the train from here. The old Downpatrick and County Down Railway, which runs to my home town of Downpatrick — it was mentioned earlier — is now the Comber greenway. If we drive down the dual carriageway, we get to the Ulster Transport Museum in Cultra. We can look at the map and see how lines, connections and opportunity slowly wither, dry up and drop off over the 20th century. To my knowledge, this is the first time in over a century that a Chamber on these islands has discussed a strategic investment plan for the rail network on this island. As well as looking back, it is important that we look forward to a 21st-century of, I hope, new connections and possibilities. In the last century, as I said, we saw decades of scaling back the network. As recently as 20 years ago, we closed the line from Lisburn to Antrim, which was mentioned by Mr Honeyford. As others have said, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan have lost their rail networks entirely. I will come on to the Fermanagh point, because it is an important one, and it is one of the reasons why we have some difficulty with the amendment. In the past 20 years, we have seen the tide begin to turn. The Belfast to Derry line, referenced multiple times, has seen passenger numbers grow, and people have regularly used the famous phrase from 'Field of Dreams': "Build it, and they will come." In the most recent stats available, the NI Railways network saw almost 13 million passengers use its service, while the pre-COVID high of 15 million also marked a high in NI Railways' 50 years of existence. However, as an island, we are among the most car-dependent regions in western Europe, with almost 70% of journeys in the North made by car, while only 2% of journeys are made by public transport. That is, bluntly, shameful. It is our fault, as legislators, as the people who do public policy, for not providing that option for our people. Between 2005 and 2015, capital spending on the railway network amounted to just £22 a head, far behind Great Britain, which spent five times as much over the same period. Our railways have thrived in spite of some of the underfunding by previous generations. They have thrived not just because people wanted to use them but because of the dedicated work of campaigners, including Into the West, which was mentioned. I am proud that it was an SDLP Minister, Nichola Mallon, who, when in the previous Executive, announced and drove forward — no pun intended; perhaps I should not use the verb to drive — moved forward the all-island rail review. The Department for Infrastructure and the Department of Transport in the South published their draft report last year, which estimated a £31 billion investment over the next few decades. Our motion is not about saying that this will all be done today, this week or next year; it is about saying that we need to start the work now. You and your officials, Minister, need — I hope that you will — to start the work of planning and costing the plan. That is what the motion is all about. The deep, profound, structural challenges of regional imbalance and climate change that we have talked about today demand no less. That vision in the all-island strategic rail review is one that can inspire us across the island. I will speak briefly about the amendment because it has come up a couple of times. The difficulty that we have with it is nothing to do with the text of the amendment, which is pretty unobjectionable. The difficulty is in what it takes out of our original motion. A critical few words in our motion are "every county in Ireland", which includes the wonderful, glorious lakeland county of Fermanagh. Your amendment, Mrs Erskine, removes Fermanagh, I am afraid — through the Speaker. That is why we have some difficulty with it, not because of any views that we have on the Union connectivity review. There are some positive things in that. I am happy to give way, if the Member wants me to.

Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. It is not a given, I am afraid, and it is important that our original motion is clear. I do not dispute much of what is in the amendment. Most of what is in the amendment is sensible, but it removes the reference to "every county in Ireland." This is an all-island rail review, not just Northern Ireland, and that matters to us and others. This is in an all-island context. There is a both-islands context, which we acknowledge, but I am afraid that the change that the amendment makes to our motion means that we have difficulty with it. As I draw my remarks to a close, I want to say that this is inspirational. It should allow our people, particularly our young people, to look beyond the horizon and see not just anxiety about the climate emergency and frustration at the limitations of politics here. It is something we can do that is transformational, not just a modal shift out of cars and into transport or connecting the island in a way that we have not seen before but something transformational and hopeful that politics can do. It is long-term stuff, and why else do we seek office? Why else do we get into politics other than to do things such as this?

I urge Members to support our motion. We spend a lot of time on the past in this place; let us start building the future.

1,063 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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