NI Railways (NIR) - NI Railways Future - FNI Railways (NIR) - F NI Railways Future The development of railways in Northern Ireland has been linked to the future economic growth of the region, and as a way of reducing road congestion. One of the major challenges that NIR has faced is the limited number of trains available for service at peak times. The limited fleet size has led to services being cancelled due to failures or delays. This can lead to widespread disruption across the network and potentially a huge loss in revenue. Upon its establishment in 1998, the Northern Ireland Assembly put in place an investment programme costing £100 million to bring about major improvements. This saw projects including the purchase of the 3000 Class trains, the complete relaying of the Belfast-Larne line and the construction of a new maintenance depot. Following completion of this, as part of its long-term investment programme for NIR Translink conducted a "Strategic Rail Review" in 2004, an independent review of rail services to determine its funding request under the Comprehensive Spending Review. This report determined that so-called "lesser used lines" were an important and economically viable part of the total network, and that investment should be consistent rather than in the "stop-go" manner of previous years. A debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday 14 May 2007 raised several proposals as to how the railway network could be improved:
Pressure groups have advocated the protection of former routes, where the track has been lifted but the trackbed remains intact, to enable these to be reinstated for commuter traffic as an alternative to increased road building. In October 2007, following the CSR that provided funding allocation to the Northern Ireland Executive, the Department for Regional Development announced its draft budget. Conor Murphy, the Regional Development Minister, stated that approximately £137 million could be allocated from for investment in the railways for the period 2008-2011. In June 2008, Brian Guckian, an independent transport researcher from Dublin, presented a wide-ranging proposal to Translink for a £460 million expansion of the network called Northern Ireland Network Enhancement (NINE). This proposes the return of the network to several towns that have not had access to rail services for many years, the main part of the proposal would see the Derry~Londonderry-Portadown line re-opened, which would link Omagh, Strabane and Dungannon, with branches to Enniskillen and Armagh. However, none of these enhancements are programmed to go to planning over the course of the next decade as of early 2013. Translink have plans to introduce a new ticketing system in 2018 similar to the system utilised by Irish Rail. This includes the introduction of ticket vending machines, allowing customers to purchase tickets via an electronic interface at the station (as opposed to the current system in which customers must pay staff for the ticket, who in turn print the customer's ticket for them), a 'smart card' 'tap on, tap off' system similar to the Leap Card and contactless payments. NI Railways Overview NI Railways Main Region(s): Northern Ireland NI Railways Fleet Size: 47 NI Railways Stations Called At: 54 NI Railways Parent Company: NITHCo (Translink) NI Railways Dates of Operation: 1967- NI Railways Predecessor: Ulster Transport Authority NI Railways Track Gauge: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) Irish gauge | |||||
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