Public meetings announced for Coleraine and Limavady to discuss Metro North West plans

Rail campaigners ‘Into The West’ have launched an exciting new proposal to radically improve rail across the North-West and North Coast. 

Branded as ‘Metro North-West’, their idea takes the EXISTING rail network that runs between Coleraine, Portrush and Derry; EXPANDS it in ways that are already progressing following the All-Island Rail Strategy (i.e. with routes re-opened to Limavady, Omagh, Strabane and Letterkenny) and then ENHANCES it further by adding a number of new stations – many of which are already under consideration (e.g. Ballykelly, City of Derry Airport, Portstewart).

This would create a new regional rail ‘brand’ operating within and alongside the wider rail network. Stretching from Coleraine/Portrush in the east to Letterkenny in the West and Omagh in the south, and all traveling through Derry city.

This new regional sub-network has been christened ‘Metro North-West’, and envisages a greatly enhanced passenger experience for rail users, including:

1. Services every 30mins, 7 days a week, from 7am to at least 11pm.
2. A ‘Pay As you Go’ system (with Tap in, Tap out payment).
3. Ticketing & timetables integrated with local bus networks.
4. Improved on-board cycle space.
5. Fully electrified routes/trains (for quicker, cleaner & quieter journeys).

The idea takes its inspiration from similar ‘Metro’ networks introduced recently in England and Wales. These networks take existing rail services, improve them in obvious ways, and then re-brand them into coherent new regional sub-networks – often without requiring major sums of money to get started.

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They continue to operate within and alongside their wider rail network, but also have their own distinct regionalised identity and branding. The Welsh government introduced three such networks last year = North Wales Metro (connecting Wrexham, Bangor and Holyhead), South Wales Metro (linking Cardiff, Newport and the Welsh Valleys), and the West Wales Metro (connecting Swansea, Carmarthen and Milford Haven).

The largest city covered by the North Wales Metro is Wrexham – which with 65,000 residents is much smaller than Derry-Londonderry. Meanwhile in England a ‘Mid-Cornwall Metro’ has also been established using the same principle - taking existing services, improving them in sensible ways, and branding and promoting them as a single regional network within the wider rail system. The largest town served by this new Mid-Cornwall Metro is Newquay, who’s population of 24,500 is similar to Coleraine.

Into The West are promoting the Metro North-West concept as an essential solution to the challenges that Coleraine, Limavady and other towns across the region are facing – such as poor connectivity, growing road congestion, economic underdevelopment and university pressures.   

Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley, explained “When people hear the word ‘Metro’, they probably think of expensive and complicated networks like the London Underground. But that’s not what the Metro North-West proposal is about. Instead it’s an exciting and relatively low-cost way to tackle a number of key challenges facing towns across this region.

"Firstly it seeks to address the extremely limited presence of rail here, and the very slow progress in changing that. The 2024 All-Island Rail Strategy agreed rail should return to Limavady, Tyrone and Donegal. And there is also recognition of the need to add new stations to the existing rail network – at places like Ballykelly or City of Derry Airport.

"The problem is that all the projects in the north-west have either been made the lowest priority, or there is no plan at all for when they will happen. Take Limavady – which the All-Island Rail Strategy confirmed should be reconnected to the rail network. It would be the easiest, quickest and cheapest rail reopening project anywhere on the island – yet there is currently no plan for when it will be restored.

"So the first key challenge is to not only tackle the poor rail provision across the north-west, but also the low priority that is currently placed on doing so. Secondly – towns in this region face significant challenges which Metro North-West would help address. For example - road congestion has got noticeably worse across the region in the last few years, and will only increase over time.

"And even though Coleraine has a university with a train station, because the rail network across the rest of the north-west is so limited many students feel they have to drive – worsening traffic and parking issues throughout the Triangle area. The North Coast also plays host to regular large events which boost the economy here but strain the existing transport infrastructure – such as the NorthWest 200, International AirShow and golf tournaments at Royal Portrush.

"Metro North-West would therefore provide everyone with an alternative way to travel to and around the region for work, study, health, entertainment, tourism or sport. Finally – Metro North-West aims to completely change the conversation about transport across this island. At the moment the decision makers on both sides of the border think infrastructure is primarily about getting people to and from Belfast and Dublin.

"That ignores the huge amount of travel that occurs daily WITHIN the North-West Region. We need to alter the mindset that everything must always be about Belfast or Dublin, and instead recognise that this region has significant internal travel needs which cause problems for our roads and economy when they can’t be fulfilled by public transport”.

Mr Bradley continued “The Metro North-West concept aims to tackle these challenges by creating a new localised and meaningful ‘brand’ for rail across our region. The concept starts with the limited rail that already exists here, expands it in ways that have already been agreed in the All-Ireland Rail Strategy, and then enhances it further by adding additional stops – some of which are already under consideration, and some of which like Portstewart are new proposals.

"The concept takes its inspiration from similar Metro networks in places like Wales and Cornwall, which cover regions with similar or smaller populations than our’s. If Cornwall can justify a branded Metro network when its largest town is the size of Coleraine, then why wouldn’t a similar system also work here?

"Because much of the Metro North-West concept is about branding, frequency and additional stations – with the rest of its proposals taking advantage of rail improvements already due to progress anyway - it doesn’t require huge sums of additional funding beyond what is already being planned.

"What it does do instead is create a reason to expedite those plans – and ensure that projects in the North-West receive a higher priority. Because every individual improvement to rail here will no longer be able to be treated as an isolated project, but instead as another core piece of the much larger Metro North-West jigsaw”.  

This year will see the 50th anniversary of the closure of the rail station at Limavady Junction in October 1976, whilst last year marked the 75th anniversary of the removal of rail from Limavady town itself in July 1950. Portstewart also had its own railway station (known as Cromore Halt) until as recently as 1988.

Into The West have created a short video to help explain and promote the Metro North-West concept, which can be viewed on their website at  www.IntoTheWest.org. They are also holding a series of public meetings across the region to discuss Metro North-West, the All-Island Rail Strategy and the case for better rail – including dates in Coleraine and Limavady :

- COLERAINE: Weds 4th March, 7pm (Causeway Rural Urban Network, 1 Foundry Mews, BT52 1XH).

- LIMAVADY: Thursday 5th March, 7pm (Roe Valley Arts Centre, 24 Main Street, BT49 0FJ).

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Metro North-West concept and the campaign to restore and improve rail throughout the region is encouraged to attend these free meetings.