A5 WTC (New Road from Aughnacloy to Derry)

[Rois]

I don't want to criticse people who've decided to try and do something rather than do nothing, but there was a previous group "Action for the A5", that certainly had strong GAA links, who tried to lobby for its construction without making it an Orange V Green thing

Despite that group, nothing has been done.
I was honoured to take part in the powerful video that was created for this. I commend the strength of the people involved, and if they have used the power of Tyrone GAA’s profile to get publicity, I certainly won’t condemn them for it. This isn’t a road to save Nationalist lives, it is to save the lives of our communities.
A Plan B has to emerge if the road isn’t ever going to be built as planned.

[screenexile]

Heard this clampit on Nolan’s show this morning and wanted to reach through the radio and wring his neck!!

https://twitter.com/stephennolan/status/1617870665700319232?s=46&t=fGrYjuK5gKO6-5Rz-dhDZg

[Eamonnca1]

Heard this clampit on Nolan’s show this morning and wanted to reach through the radio and wring his neck!!

https://twitter.com/stephennolan/status/1617870665700319232?s=46&t=fGrYjuK5gKO6-5Rz-dhDZg

He has a point. The only sure way to cut the number of road deaths is to cut the number of vehicle miles travelled, and that means giving people viable alternatives to private cars.

I'd be in favour of part of the A5 project if it meant bypassing Omagh and allowing the current A5 route to go back to its original use as part of the Portadown-Dungannon-Omagh-Derry railway that should never have been closed. Ditto for Strabane.

[trailer]

Heard this clampit on Nolan’s show this morning and wanted to reach through the radio and wring his neck!!

https://twitter.com/stephennolan/status/1617870665700319232?s=46&t=fGrYjuK5gKO6-5Rz-dhDZg

He has a point. The only sure way to cut the number of road deaths is to cut the number of vehicle miles travelled, and that means giving people viable alternatives to private cars.

I'd be in favour of part of the A5 project if it meant bypassing Omagh and allowing the current A5 route to go back to its original use as part of the Portadown-Dungannon-Omagh-Derry railway that should never have been closed. Ditto for Strabane.

Some chance they open that railway.
The A5 should be built but because it really benefits a load of Nationalists it's being held up by a small minority of Protestant farmers. This is the bottom line. People now criticising Action for A5 because it comes from within the GAA community need to have a word with themselves.

[WeeDonns]

Some chance they open that railway.
The A5 should be built but because it really benefits a load of Nationalists it's being held up by a small minority of Protestant farmers. This is the bottom line. People now criticising Action for A5 because it comes from within the GAA community need to have a word with themselves.

Action for the A5 was the previous group
Not criticizing "Enough is Enough", but agreeing with Hereiam

With the involvement of the Tyrone GAA in this issue now it will harden the unionist side more than ever against it.
This scheme was dead in the water as soon as it was announced. Political sabotage at its best by the unionists.

Fair play to those who are trying to do something

Will it ever be built? What do we think?

From http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/roads/a5omaghstrabane.html
The full A5 is now estimated at £1.609 billion.
The original estimate for the A5 was £844m as of 2009 when the Irish government committed to funding £400m
The Irish government contribution has been partly paid (£200m £75 up to 2022) but has not increased.
This means that the amount that Northern Ireland needs to spend has increased from £444m to £1209m, a tripling of the cost.

Irrespective of planning, I can't see it being built now due to the cost
Wesley has suggested alternatives on the above link to do something rather than nothing

[LeoMc]

Heard this clampit on Nolan’s show this morning and wanted to reach through the radio and wring his neck!!

https://twitter.com/stephennolan/status/1617870665700319232?s=46&t=fGrYjuK5gKO6-5Rz-dhDZg

He has a point. The only sure way to cut the number of road deaths is to cut the number of vehicle miles travelled, and that means giving people viable alternatives to private cars.

I'd be in favour of part of the A5 project if it meant bypassing Omagh and allowing the current A5 route to go back to its original use as part of the Portadown-Dungannon-Omagh-Derry railway that should never have been closed. Ditto for Strabane.

Public transport works where there is sufficient population density to make regular services viable.
There is some push on Twitter to have the Antrim to Lisburn line reopened to allow a regular (every 15 minutes) each way service between Belfast, Lisburn, Crumlin, Aldergrove, Antrim, Templepatrick Newtonabbey, Belfast (the circle line). That sort of investment, and I know it is in the East, would take many more cars off the road that a twice a day service to Castlederg or Drumquin.

Yes, we need to get more cars of the road and the Great Northern railway would benefit many who live along its route,  but West Tyrone is a rural area where car dependency cannot be easily eradicated.

[armaghniac]

The Stormont government seriously screwed up by removing the lines to Banbridge, Armagh, Dungannon and Comber, whatever about lines further afield. These would have provided Belfast with commuter services second to none. Even they closed these they should have kept the route.

[AustinPowers]

Armagh is the  only city in Ireland  not served by a railway. And I honestly don’t see that ever changing  as that would entail just  extending the line from portadown., then stopping.  It would hardly extend  further to Keady, Monaghan etc

A line from portadown to Derry is  more likely (although still not likely) as a continuous line, through dungannon, omagh etc .

[armaghniac]

Armagh is the  only city in Ireland  not served by a railway. And I honestly don’t see that ever changing  as that would entail just  extending the line from portadown., then stopping.  It would hardly extend  further to Keady, Monaghan etc

A line from portadown to Derry is  more likely (although still not likely) as a continuous line, through dungannon, omagh etc .

The line to Keady ran under the stand at the Athletic grounds, a new route would be needed.

There is not going to be a line to anywhere built, they might reopen the line from Lisburn to Antrim as it is still there. 

[trailer]

The Politicians and Silly Servants in charge of running NI are the most overpaid and underworked incompetent arseholes anywhere on planet earth.

A5
Casement
Dungiven Bypass
Westlink (M2/M3)
Omagh shared campus
RHI
Enniskillen Hospital
And on it goes... Millions upon millions wasted.

If everyone involved in those projects were transported to Antarctica would we notice they were gone?

[AustinPowers]

The Politicians and Silly Servants in charge of running NI are the most overpaid and underworked incompetent arseholes anywhere on planet earth.

A5
Casement
Dungiven Bypass
Westlink (M2/M3)
Omagh shared campus
RHI
Enniskillen Hospital
And on it goes... Millions upon millions wasted.

If everyone involved in those projects were transported to Antarctica would we notice they were gone?

Antarctica , another cold  house for nationalists

[Wildweasel74]

Badly needs a new road, only road outside of the old Frosses in Antrim that I be worried driving on. Could be years to it happen, can't even finish one they started at Dungiven.Going on a year late, for no reason.

[Wildweasel74]

Well somebody keeps voting then in!

[seafoid]

It's systematic. And Stormont is shut. Which is also systematic. Why not go directly to the UK Government ?
There is a cost to the economy of inferior infrastructure. Derry could really develop with the right investment .
The multiples would be decent.

[Eamonnca1]

Heard this clampit on Nolan’s show this morning and wanted to reach through the radio and wring his neck!!

https://twitter.com/stephennolan/status/1617870665700319232?s=46&t=fGrYjuK5gKO6-5Rz-dhDZg

He has a point. The only sure way to cut the number of road deaths is to cut the number of vehicle miles travelled, and that means giving people viable alternatives to private cars.

I'd be in favour of part of the A5 project if it meant bypassing Omagh and allowing the current A5 route to go back to its original use as part of the Portadown-Dungannon-Omagh-Derry railway that should never have been closed. Ditto for Strabane.

Public transport works where there is sufficient population density to make regular services viable.
There is some push on Twitter to have the Antrim to Lisburn line reopened to allow a regular (every 15 minutes) each way service between Belfast, Lisburn, Crumlin, Aldergrove, Antrim, Templepatrick Newtonabbey, Belfast (the circle line). That sort of investment, and I know it is in the East, would take many more cars off the road that a twice a day service to Castlederg or Drumquin.

Yes, we need to get more cars of the road and the Great Northern railway would benefit many who live along its route,  but West Tyrone is a rural area where car dependency cannot be easily eradicated.

Omagh is the biggest town in the north without a railway station, and there are far smaller towns with stations (Scarva, anyone?). There's plenty of justification for reopening that line through Dungannon, which in my opinion should be a higher priority than the complete A5.

There used to be a narrow gauge branch line that went to Castlederg from the mainline station at Victoria Bridge. No railway ever went to Drumquin that I'm aware of.

Restoring the railway is only part of the job. The other part is adjusting settlement patterns so that more people cluster around stations instead of having traffic-inducing bungalow blight peppered over the countryside.

The Knockmore line that you speak of is the lowest hanging fruit of all the railway reopenings since the tracks are still there and still in occasional use for certain types of movement. Putting a halt at Aldergrove and connecting it to the rest of the network in a Belfast circle line is a no-brainer. Following that I'd like to see Portadown-Armagh reopened. 10 miles of undisturbed route just sitting there with cuttings, embankments, and half the bridges already in place. It'd prove the concept of reopening a dormant line, and would build popular support for the reopening of the old Derry Road line.