Ministers are like buses, you wait for one then two visit you!
On Thursday 6th June, we were pleased to welcome Northern Ireland Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins to our railway. This followed on from the visitor of her predecessor, John O’Dowd, last year. Minister Kimmins toured our site with officials from the Rail Safety Authority and Rivers Agency. The party were then brought on a trip out to Inch Abbey using our 450 Class railcar set “Antrim Castle” (as seen on Derry Girls).
We took the opportunity to highlight our flood recovery progress to the Minister, while also making it clear that much work remains and discussed how DCDR could work more closely with the Department for Infrastructure towards making our railway and stations more resilient to future flooding.
We cautiously welcome the flood report’s recommendation of Option N, which avoids a flood barrier across our tracks, but we’re still concerned it may increase flood risk at Inch Abbey, where we estimate a rebuild of the platform could cost around £1.5 million. We hope we can sit down with officials in the forthcoming review of the proposals to see how the effect at Inch could be mitigated.
We also flagged the serious build-up of silt at Quoile Bridge, which not only looks unsightly, but affects safety inspections of the structure. The study ruled out dredging this area, however, we believe there needs to be an analysis of how the health of this stretch of river will impact the surrounding railway infrastructure, and how this can be mitigated.
Aside from the floods, we were also looking to the future, and discussed how the Department for Infrastructure might be able to help in delivering the line extensions being proposed by the Downpatrick Regeneration Working Group.
We look forward to working with the Department as it takes forward these solutions, and hope the Minister enjoyed her trip.
