I have spent many a happy holiday going over to N. Ireland since i was a wee boy from here in Glasgow. At one time they had an extensive system but it was almost done to death after the UTA took over - their bosses seemed to be more bus orientated. Eventually Northern Ireland Railways got was is left. They hhave done what they can with the resources they get and with 23 new train sets t a year or so ago it helps. In the South there has been a tremendous revival and one of the fastest growing in Europe passneger-wise. Not just modernisation but lines re-opened and more in the pipeline.
This makes me wonder why the NIR is not getting more support not just for rentetion but enlarging and re-opening. There was even a bit of a fight to keep the line from Belfast to Londonderry open beyond Ballymena. The 2 main cities in the Province! The former lines to Armagh City or the Newcastle oneas far as downpatrick could be brought back. Friends of The Earth produced a great plan that is typical of what is being done in the rest of the UK, Ireland and the Continent. I also find that here in Scotland First Scotrail gets a subsidy far larger than NIR gets and the saem applies to raiol companies in england so why is the NIR being left out in the cold?
This makes me wonder why the NIR is not getting more support not just for rentetion but enlarging and re-opening. There was even a bit of a fight to keep the line from Belfast to Londonderry open beyond Ballymena. The 2 main cities in the Province! The former lines to Armagh City or the Newcastle oneas far as downpatrick could be brought back. Friends of The Earth produced a great plan that is typical of what is being done in the rest of the UK, Ireland and the Continent. I also find that here in Scotland First Scotrail gets a subsidy far larger than NIR gets and the saem applies to raiol companies in england so why is the NIR being left out in the cold?