Reconnect Armagh’s railway network

When the last train departed Armagh Station on 30 September 1957, there were three invisible things among the travellers that evening. They were the potential for Armagh city growth, an alternative to the private car, and easy city access for visitors, writes William Hutchinson, chair of the Portadown to Armagh Railway Society.

According to the 2021 Census, since 1961 Lisburn urban area population has grown by over 33,000, Lurgan by almost 11,000, and Portadown by 14,300. In that same timeframe, the city of Armagh saw just 6,300 added to the population. There can be no doubt that being on the rail network contributes substantially to human and economic growth.

Every year, over five million car journeys take place between Armagh and Portadown on the A3. A significant percentage of these journeys are actually between Armagh and Belfast, and contribute to the congestion on the M1 which these days starts on the approach to Lisburn, and carries on to the West Link. Having a railway connection from the city of Armagh, right in to the centre of Belfast, would provide a viable alternative transport mode, contributing to Northern Ireland’s decarbonisation goals, and avoid the seemingly inevitable cost of making the A3 a dual carriageway.

The city of Armagh is teeming with places of interest for visitors to explore, and a connection to the rail network would make it much easier to do so. With the growth in cruise ship traffic into Belfast, the historic city of Armagh would be a single 40 minute train journey from Grand Central Station, and this would trigger the release of the untapped tourism potential the city of Armagh possesses.

The 1957 closure of the rail network in the counties west of the Bann massively reduced connectivity between towns and communities in Armagh, Tyrone, and Fermanagh and drove reliance on personal transport. The city of Armagh may only be 10 miles away from the network at Portadown, but the restoration of the railway connection would open up the potential to bring Monaghan, Clones, and Enniskillen into the frame as part of a westward and cross-border corridor.

The Portadown to Armagh Railway Society (PARS) grew out of a 10,000 signature petition conducted in 2014, and delivered to the then Minister for Infrastructure. PARS engaged with Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon Council and became part of a railway working group. Out of this came a Scoping Study, then a joint council/Department for Infrastructure technical study, and most recently to a first stage Feasibility Study (£800,000).

All of these studies concluded that this project not only has merit, but has an attractive rate of return, thanks to an estimated 500,000 new passengers per year being attracted to rail transport. This confirms the inclusion of this project in the recommendations of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.

Of the four initiatives under consideration for the rail network in Northern Ireland (Portadown to Armagh, Portadown to Derry/Londonderry, Electrification of the Belfast to Newry line, and Lisburn to Antrim), the reconnection of Armagh city is estimated to be the lowest cost of the four, and comparable in scale to some of the recent dual carriageway projects in the province.

Now we just need the political will to get it done.