Governments to be Referred to EU Over A5 Road Scheme

Plan is Immoral and Contravenes Sustainable Transport Policies - Campaigner

A LEADING campaigner on sustainable transport issues in Ireland is to refer the Irish government and the Northern Ireland Assembly to the Eurpean Commission for their support for and pursuance of the proposed cross-border A5 Derry to Aughnacloy road scheme.

Brian Guckian, who carries out research and development in the sustainable transport field and who is a prominent campaigner for rail development, said the proposal was absurd and perverse in an era of climate change and oil depletion, made a mockery of EU and regional policies on sustainable transport, and would take funds from essential rail development proposals.

Mr. Guckian said he had the right to intervene in the issue as Irish taxpayer's money was being used to fund the proposed scheme.

He noted that parallel to the existing A5 road was the abandoned Derry - Strabane - Omagh - Dungannon - Portadown railway, closed in 1965. The European Commission would want to know why this line was not being re-opened to combat climate change and oil dependency, he said.

Terminating the A5 project would allow the line to be re-opened, providing a genuine and sustainable transport corridor for the region, and at far lower cost. This was estimated at £266 million in a submission to Translink in 2008. In contrast, the A5 cost was estimated at between £500 million and £600 million.

An accompanying speeding up of services between Dublin and Belfast to connect with the re-opened line, plus new through railfreight services, would represent genuine improvement to transport links between Dublin and Derry, he said. It would also benefit people living in Letterkenny and Inishowen, as well as communities along the route who would gain a new rail connection to Belfast. Journey times of three hours between Derry and Dublin would be possible if this alternative was adopted, he stated.

Mr. Guckian said that anyone from Continental Europe would find it ludicrous and unacceptable that major towns like Strabane, Omagh and Dungannon had no rail service, especially given that their populations were higher than several locations on the current NI Railways network

Mr. Guckian said that the A5 scheme was immoral and should be rejected at the planning enquiry stage as it represented the very worst in mediocre and regressive transport planning policy.

It was also false to claim that new roads brought economic benefits. This had been disproven in several scientific studies, and current evidence was to the contrary, with new roads simply attracting more traffic and driving up environmental, social and economic costs to society. Mr. Guckian said a study he had carried out into the controversial M3 motorway in the south in 2005 had conservatively estimated that it would generate at least six times its construction costs in secondary, downstream costs over a 30-year period.

Mr. Guckian condemned the endless foot-dragging and lack of seriousness shown to rail development proposals, which exposed the governments' contempt for genuine sustainable transport policies and undermined their claims that they were intent on combatting climate change and moving away from dependence on fossil fuels for energy.

He said that it was embarassing that just across the water, the Scottish Executive were implementing a major rail investment and line re-opening programme.

ENDS

Contact: Brian Guckian 087 9140105 railprojects@eircom.net