Debate contribution: North-west Transport

Debate contribution by Mr Mark Durkan on 4 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Mark Durkan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

4 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

North-west Transport

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4833488

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

The motion addresses an issue that continues to choke the north-west and strangle opportunities there: the chronic and historic underinvestment in transport infrastructure. The people of Derry, Strabane, Limavady and the Causeway coast deserve a modern, efficient and well-connected transport system that meets the needs of businesses, commuters, tourists and families alike. Year after year, however, we find ourselves fighting for even the most basic improvements and the righting of historic wrongs. Yes, we have seen improvements. We welcome the Executive's eventual acceptance of shouldering the financial burden of the City of Derry Airport, the benefits of which should be felt not only by ratepayers in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area but by many across the North and in Donegal and beyond. The state of our transport links is not just an inconvenience but a barrier to the success of our second city — my first city. The lack of adequate rail links and road infrastructure is a major factor in the regional inequalities that persist across the North. It is time for the Executive to deliver real, tangible improvements, not just lip service and never-ending but never-arriving announcements. We have seen that lip service paid time and time again when it comes to improving rail services, particularly in regard to the critical phase 3 of the Derry to Coleraine upgrade. Last year, in the mouth of the general election, the then Infrastructure Minister celebrated the delivery of £97·7 million for that project, but a wee bit of digging revealed that just 5% of that proposed investment would be delivered in this financial year. The upgrade, which was supposed to be completed in 2027 — that in itself was a revised date — now will not begin until May of that year. Raising hopes of such a transformational and long-overdue project is completely unacceptable. The perpetually postponed upgrade will go a long way in righting some of those long-term injustices and must be a priority. It will help to tackle regional imbalance and steer the city on a course towards a brighter future. A quick glance at the map shows the blatant disparity in rail provision between east and west. The gap in the map is an indelible mark on the cultural psyche that suggests that the north-west — Derry, largely, and Donegal as well as Fermanagh — is a place that is shut off, isolated and unsuitable for prospective investors. That said, we have seen some modest, incremental improvements in rail timetabling. Since the hourly Belfast to Derry service was introduced several years ago, we have witnessed, year-on-year, record-breaking passenger numbers for Derry rail. 2023 marked a 54% increase in usage, which has seen the Derry rail station climb from the seventeenth-busiest station in the North to the seventh. That is the living embodiment of, "If you build it, they will come". Yet, inexplicably, Derry has only six rail services on a Sunday, whereas every station east of the Bann has 13 on the Belfast to Coleraine line. There have been no efforts in the last few years to improve that frequency. When I asked the Minister to commit to improvements, she simply recognised that it would be beneficial. In real terms, Derry — the second city — receives 2,600 fewer rail services every year than the stations east of the Bann. Without being disrespectful to any other Member's constituency, I say that those are places with a much smaller population base than the North's second city. Derry remains the only city of its size on the island — someone made the point in the previous debate — with a single-track railway. That is a clear symbol of transport inequality. If the Executive are serious about improving connectivity, they must take the all-island rail review off the shelf and put it on the ground. We need dual tracking on the Derry to Belfast line to improve frequency, reliability and safety and the reopening of the Derry to Portadown line to restore vital cross-border links. The leader of the Opposition, my colleague Matthew O'Toole, was speaking —.

Oh, thank you.

687 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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