North Leitrim 'devoid of rail infrastructure' a Leitrim senator told the Oireachtas this week

North Leitrim is 'devoid of infrastructre' Leitrim/Sligo senator Nessa Cosgrove told Oireachtas this week where she held up a map of the existing and planned rail network to illustrate her point/

Speaking this during a special debate on the All Island Rail Review. Senator Cosgrove stated that the review recognises that there are significant gaps in the rail network’s coverage.

“Never”, she said “was a truer word said. Donegal, North Leitrim, North Sligo and into the North of Ireland are devoid of rail infrastructure.”

Contrasting the situation today with that experienced of 100 years ago, Senator Cosgrove added: “Recently I visited the homestead of one of our heroes of 1916, Sean MacDiarmada, in Kiltyclogher. While Kiltyclogher feels remote today, the tour guide made the point that in 1915 MacDiarmada made his way to Dublin from the local Glenfarne station, part of the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway. Glenfarne and Kiltyclogher did not feel remote in 1916, they were a central part of a unitary island with a functioning rail network. The very title of the All-Island rail review makes clear that the border does not make sense in terms of rail infrastructure.”

Recognising improvements in some cross-border infrastructure such as the proposed instatement of a spur from Letterkenny to Derry, as well as from Portadown to Mullingar, Senator Cosgrove claimed that “the lack of attention, the absence of railways, and the lack of ambition to build rail infrastructure, is symptomatic of the neglect shown to the North-West region as a whole.”

READ MORE: Short notice cuts at civic amenity site in Leitrim sparks criticism

Moving on to the existing infrastructure between Sligo and Dublin, the Labour Party Senator stated that:

“the frequency, length of journey time and capacity all need to be improved. To move passengers from road to rail, Rail travel needs to be quicker and more efficient. In terms of frequency Sligo is relegated to an ambition for a two-hourly service. Not a great level of ambition considering that the timetable is nearly two hours at present. 

It also directly contradict exchanges that I have had with senior members of Irish Rail, who have told me explicitly that they are targeting a move to an hourly service within the next few years. I would like to know if the Minister of State could clarify that. Is there going to be a move to an hourly service?”

A more urgent immediate ambition, and one which has been proven will work, thanks to the great work of an Engineering Graduate of ATU Sligo is the delivery of an early morning commuter train from Longford to Sligo, and possibly an evening return train. This would benefit students, workers, tourists and people attending medical appointments. 

I was reassured to hear on RTE Radio Barry Kenny of Irish Rail say that he hoped in the relatively short-order to be delivering this and that it does not want all the commuting to be focused on Dublin”. 

Returning to the absence of catering services on the Sligo-Dublin line, an issue which she has highlighted on many previous occasions Senator Cosgrove said that reintroducing some form of catering would be “an easy win” before concluding with a suggestion that an “Addendum (be) put into the All-Island Rail Review dealing exclusively with and discriminating in terms of the West and North West. It is in public ownership and that section of the railway should be included in the review.”