Airport rail links and a proposed new station at Craigavon are among the recommendations of the final report from the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.
But restoring a railway line to Enniskillen has been ruled out.
The report was published in draft form in July 2023, with a consultation afterwards.
Among its recommendations were connections to international airports and the restoration of the line from Londonderry to Portadown with a view to increasing North West connectivity.
The final version now contains 32 recommendations.
Among them are:
Connecting Dublin, Shannon and Belfast International airports to the rail network. Reinstating the Lisburn to Antrim line would enable Belfast International to be served by a rail link
Restoring a line linking Portadown in County Armagh with Mullingar in County Westmeath. The line would pass through Armagh and Cavan
Restoring a line between Londonderry and Portadown, linking the towns of Strabane, Omagh and Dungannon to the network
Building a new direct line between Lisburn and Newry
Developing a new rail link from Letterkenny in County Donegal to Derr
It is expected the recommendations would take up to 25 years to implement in full.
Northern Ireland will pay a quarter of the cost, estimated to be between €35bn (£29bn) and €37bn (£31bn) in 2023 terms.
The review focused on six goals:
Contributing to Decarbonisation;
Improving connectivity between the island’s major cities;
Enhancing rural and regional accessibility;
Encouraging sustainable mobility;
Fostering economic activity;
Achieving economic and financial feasibility.
Quite a chunk of change, but we know from other countries that if you have a good rail system it will get used. It is also ironic that we are going back in time, and that the rail system in Ireland was far better over a 100 years ago.
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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