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Announcements of S. E. A. Meetings

Campaign to Keep Railway Link

To be held at the Junction in Bishop Street in Derry on Wednesday, 10th March 2004, at 8pm


A public meeting will be held in Derry next week to organise opposition to any attempt to downgrade or close the Derry rail link.

All political parties, trade unions and the general public are being invited to attend the meeting, to be hosted by the Socialist Environmental Alliance.

The meeting will take place in the Junction in Bishop Street next Wednesady, March 10th, at 8pm.

Said a SEA spokesperson yesterday: "We are urging all other parties and trade unionists to join with us on this issue because we realise that the future of the rail link is far from a narrow, party-political matter. We also hope for a good trade union turn-out. In the first instance, this is a fight to save jobs. More generally, it affects the whole welfare of the town and the north west area.

"We are not out to exaggerate the danger of the line closing. But we do believe that there are ominous signs. If it emerges in the next fortnight from the spending plans to be announced by the NIO that the threat to the line is real, then we believe there should be a campaign in place ready to go into action immediately.

"We hope that there will be a pooling of ideas at the meeting as to how to carry the campaign forward. The rail workers and their unions should obviously be at the front and centre of any campaign. But there¹s also need for the wider community to be fully involved.

"Whatever the developments of the next days and weeks, there is also need for a longer-term campaign for the extension and upgrading of the line. It should be extended to the west, to link up with a high-speed Sligo-Galway line and onwards to Cork. In other words, there should be a fast, comfortable modern line encircling the island.

"If the Derry-Ballymena line is allowed to deteriorate until closure becomes inevitable, there will be nothing for a future line from Sligo to link up with.

"Rail is the safest and most environmentally friendly method of travel yet devised. It is madness that any bureaucrat at the NIO or Translink HQ should be thinking of curtting back. The rail network should be properly maintained, properly modernised, properly promoted. shortly.






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