Network
Contributing Writer rail@bauermedia.co.uk
NORTHERN Ireland could be set for its first electrified railway, and a long-lost route could also be reopened, as part of a near £5 million improvements package announced by Transport Secretary Mark Harper.
A promised revival in the fortunes of the province’s fixed track network, which was near to total closure in the 1960s, comes in response to Lord Hendy’s Union Connectivity Review. It includes £3.3m for operator Translink to deliver a study on the cost, feasibility, and value for money of electrification from Belfast to the Irish border.
This follows publication in the summer of the draft All Island Rail Review, which recommended putting the full inter-city route to Dublin under wires to contribute to decarbonisation and improve journey times.
Another £700,000 has been provided to study reopening the mothballed Lisburn to Antrim line, which was closed to passengers in 2003 after the former route to Bleach Green reopened in 2001 with Derry services diverted.
The line is still maintained but was last used in 2018 for engineering trains. It could now serve Belfast International Airport.
The fund also provides £800,000 for a more in-depth study on reopening the former GNR line between Portadown and Armagh (closed in September 1957).
In November, a review by Armagh Banbridge Craigavon Council and the Department for Infrastructure said the reopening would shorten journey times to Belfast and generate at least 670,000 journeys each year.
Meanwhile, two mothballed routes in Ireland are included in the European Communit
