Retro: Clogher Valley Railway is ‘a relic of a bygone age’ claims MP (1938)
Decisions regarding the future of the Clogher Valley Railway could not be made until after the publication of the report of the McLintock Committee on the operation of the Ulster Road and Rail Transport Act, it had been revealed during this week in November 1938.
This is revealed in the report of the Select Committee on Public Accounts, who at their meetings in 1938, had considered the question of closing the railway. Mr J Beattie, the member for Pottinger, was chairman of the committee.
The committee had stated: “The Clogher Valley Railway which runs from Tynan to Maguiresbridge, a distance of 37 miles, was opened for traffic about 50 years ago. The paid-up capital of the company amounts to £123,310. The railway has never earned sufficient revenue to make any provision towards the payments of the dividends due to the shareholders. In most years the earnings have not even been sufficient to cover the working expenses.
“As the undertaking had failed to pay its way, it was taken over, some years ago, by a committee of the two County Councils concerned. From the early years government grants were made in relief of the burden falling upon the local ratepayers. Up to the introduction of derating in 1930-31 the average annual payment made by the Northern Ireland government was about £5,600. Since that time the greater part of the charge previously borne by the local rates has ranked for derating grants, with the result that only a small portion of the annual charge is now met by the ratepayers.
“We are strongly of opinion that the present expenditure from government funds is difficult to justify, and we trust that it will be found possible either to liquidate the government liability or to reduce it to a minimum.”
Speaking at one of the meetings (according to the report), Mr John Johnston, MP, described the undertaking as “absolutely useless”.
“It was”, he said, “a monument of a bygone age – a relic that was kept going by the government at a cost of £10,000 a year.”
Mr G C Duggan, Principal Assistant Secretary of the Minister of Finance, said there was a difficult legal point involved whether if the railway were finally closed, the liability of the two guaranteeing County Councils (Tyrone and Fermanagh) to guarantee the stock would still exist.