NI railways underfunding highlighted

Report acknowledges railways have been cash starved

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Brooke has accepted that there has been historic underinvestment by government in the province's railway system.

Mr Brooke, chairman of the All-party Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster, was speaking at the launch of two reports by the committee, into the operation of the railways and the Industrial Development Board.

Mr Brooke said that it would be inappropriate of the committee to make specific recommendations, because since they began their report, responsibility for transport has transferred to the local administration.

Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party regional development minister Gregory Campbell welcomed the report's assessment that the railways had suffered from a history of under-investment, making it difficult to plan for the future.

He said the province's rail network would have to close unless £120m was invested in the next few years.

"The time has come to end uncertainties surrounding the future of rail services," he said.

'Quality of service has suffered'

Presenting the committee's report at Stormont in Belfast on Friday Mr Brooke said new trains would be needed unless the rail network was to be severely reduced.

Peter Brooke: Major investment in railways is needed

He said even substantially cutting services would not make a major difference to the overall investment necessary on trains.

Mr Brook also called on the newly-devolved administration to decide what it was going to do about the rail system as soon as possible.

"The quality of the railway service in Northern Ireland has undoubtedly suffered as a result of a continuity of government indecision over how to fund the new rolling stock," he said.

The Public Affairs Committee, which has no power other than to make recommendations, noted the Northern Ireland department of regional development's preferred option was to spend £4.8m refurbishing 13 existing trains in the next two years, and £45.8m buying 12 new ones the following year.

Mr Campbell pointed out significant spending on track and signalling was also needed.

Private finance recommendation

The committee urged the Stormont executive to clarify the legal position on leasing assets as opposed to purchasing them.

Gregory Campbell: Hope assembly will allocate funds to transport

Before he resigned as part of his party's policy against Sinn Fein in government, the previous DUP regional development minister Peter Robinson published a ten year plan and recommended that private finance should be brought in to help fund transport improvments.

A DRD spokesman said: "There is nothing to stop Northern Ireland Railways leasing trains as long as it is value for money to the public purse and that funding is available within public expenditure plans."

The report pointed out that the spending plans of the owner of the Northern Ireland Railways, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, were well beyond current resources.

Task force public consultation

"There is an urgent need for decisions to be taken on the future scale and direction of NIR's operations and how these are to be funded," it said.

Mr Campbell said he expected the Railways Task Force interim report on a range of options within weeks which he would then discuss with local councils.

The taskforce is currently examining the system after it emerged that £183m was needed to maintain safety standards and keep it viable over the next 10 years.

It has been hosting a series of public meetings to gauge opinion about the service before it prepares a report later this year.

Mr Campbell said he hoped in the autumn the Assembly would allocate sufficient money to consolidate the rail network in the short term as a first step toward a quality public transport system.

Mr Brooke said there shoukld be an attempt to improve links between Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company and the Department of Regional Development.

"Relations between NITHC and DRD do not seem to have been perfect and improvements would be to the benefit of the Northern Ireland travelling public," he said.

The Public Affairs Committee also felt there could be a good case for separating responsibility for public transport with DRD from the Roads Division, to try to lessening the recent emphasis on roads spending.