Rail infrastructure in a potential United Ireland

The recent election in Britain has ensured that Brexit will now happen, and the fact that there are now more Nationalist/Republican MPs in the North than Unionist ones is notable. Several commentators I have read over the last couple of days have written either that a United Ireland is now an inevitability in the next two-three decades or that the election result, and the likely form of Brexit which will result from that, will lead to an even closer alignment of NI and the Republic, and probably a United Ireland at some later stage.

If or when a United Ireland happens, integration of the two original countries will be key to the success of the new one, and sensible integration of infrastructure will be vital. Rail infrastructure will hopefully be one aspect of this process of integration.

I am basing the following suggestion on two assumptions: (i) that rail travel will represent an efficient and green method of travelling between major nodes, and broadly will not be overtaken in efficiency by autonomous cars or other vehicles; and (ii) that the creation of the new country, and the importance of integration, will lead to a large pay-off from the UK and general goodwill in terms of financing from countries like the US.

Crayons out, I envisage construction of a rail line between Derry (Londonderry) and Cork, via perhaps Omagh, Enniskillen, Longford, Athlone, Birr and Templemore (and then Thurles, Limerick Junction, Mallow on the current Cork-Dublin line). And also a (Belfast) Portadown-Armagh-Monaghan-Cavan-Longford line.

With a Derry - Cork trunk line as the main spine of the system, and a line to/from Belfast feeding into it at (say) Longford, the possibilities for direct Belfast - Cork, Belfast - Limerick, Belfast - Galway or Belfast - Waterford services, and potential for one-change connections with Dublin - Galway, Dublin - Westport and Dublin - Sligo services (At Athlone or Longford) would be considerable.

You would probably have to move some current stations away from their current location, for example the new Athlone station* would probably have to be a bit away from the town, and there would certainly need to be some tunnelling somewhere. And how would you have a southbound station in Derry? Definitely problems abound.

(*I think an out-of-town location here would be necessary, but could be a very fine place to enable direct services heading east or west of the proposed Derry-Cork trunk line or to facilitate connection with the East-West Dublin-Galway line).

A good connection at Longford would also open up possibilites for one-change rail services between Belfast and Sligo. At Athlone, possibilities for one-change services to Westport, Castlebar and so on.

Et cetera.

(There isn't any obvious reason I can see why you would, under this arrangement, tinker with the direct coastal line between Belfast and Dublin, or the line between Belfast and Derry, or the current lines emanating from Dublin (apart from improving them, if possible)).

I can't see that there would be huge demand for direct Cork-Derry services along such a route, perhaps 3-4 trains per day. It would be as a major corridor along the country, with city-city services feeding in and out, and connecting with others, that it would fulfil its purpose of integrating the new country.