Debate contribution: North-west Transport

Debate contribution by Mr Keith Buchanan on 4 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Keith Buchanan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

4 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

North-west Transport

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4833558

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I had better get going, because time seems to be short today.

I will run through people's comments broadly, to give a quick overview. At the start of the debate, Mark Durkan referred to the north-west being choked and strangled. That was interesting terminology. He talked about the Executive paying lip service only. He then talked about an increase in rail passengers and referred to a figure of, I think, 54%. He talked about the lack of rail service on a Sunday and compared that with the situation in other parts of Northern Ireland. Gary touched on the importance of tourism to the north-west. That area is lagging behind. He talked about the potential of getting additional finances for transport, which would increase tourism and help the whole area. He also talked about the north-west being included in the transport strategy. If I picked him up right, he said, "Our wains need trains": I do not disagree with that. Wains or adults, we all need trains. Nicola Brogan referred to the 2035 transport plan as a step in the right direction. To be fair, she talked about the A5 upgrade, which is important to her. She talked about improving safety and travel times on that road. Peter McReynolds talked about social and economic development. He talked about active travel infrastructure. A week or two ago, we had a debate about active travel. It is a question of how the Minister gets a balance so that active travel does not go too far. I will not quote my line on active travel, because I think that Members have all heard it. We should not go too far. I am not against active travel, but it is about getting the balance right so that we do not do it to the detriment of roads. Peter also talked about backing plans with funding, and he made a comment about the public consultation on the Mobuoy site. Deborah is from the west; I am sure that you are all aware of that

She referred to the lack of infrastructure in the west more broadly. There is the north-west, and then, from my point of view in Mid Ulster, there is west. Then, there is the south-west. There is an issue with the lack of rail ambition and linking up the whole public network in the west more broadly, not just the north-west. Deborah talked about regional balance and touched on tourism, which impacts on the north-west as well as the south-west. There is also tourism in Mid Ulster, by the way. Andrew McMurray referred to sustainable travel. It you watch his Facebook, you will have seen that he is a big advocate of that. He said that there was room for improvement in bus services. Andrew is a big advocate of active travel. The Minister talked about her role being to provide building blocks to improve the north-west. She spoke about the A6 improvement, talked about the Dublin-Londonderry journey times via the A5 and the work on that. I think that I have got this right: she said that the publication of the draft north-west transport plan would be later this year.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

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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