Douglas Addis says that old lines will never reopen (News Letter, August 23). This is most unhelpful and a typical attitude of the day, and one that the Government and the Stormont civil servants love to hear.
I would remind Mr Addis, and those who have forgotten that the then government of Northern Ireland on September 21, 1957 made the shock announcement that the railways serving Armagh, Enniskillen, Omagh and Dungannon, along with all the villages and h
alts in between, would close.
To soften this blow, the Stormont government gave assurances that a motorway would be built from Belfast to Enniskillen. This commitment by the minister at Stormont has never been met, with the exception of Dungannon. The M1 ended there and Enniskillen, Omagh and the west have been forgotten about.
I believe we have every right to lobby for the return of the railway branch lines to these towns in the west.
We were given false promises that a motorway would replace the closure of these branch lines.
That never happened and the motorway stopped at Dungannon and we in the west of the Province were left without a rail service and with roads that are atrocious. Enniskillen and Omagh have every right to a rail service dovetailing into the existing rail system on the island.
I will not be silent when it comes to a call for the railways to be reopened.
It is silence that lets governments walk all over us.
There should go out a call, both loud and clear, that the railways should be returned to Enniskillen and Omagh and a proper road system be put in place, too.
We in the west pay our taxes, road fund licences and road fuel taxes etc and are fully entitled to services, too, and it would send out the wrong message if we are to say it will never happen.
We should and must demand our rights.
Bert Johnston (Cllr)
Fermanagh District Council
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