1) UPDATE ON FERMANAGH PETITION

Thank you so much for being one of the 5,000+ people who have signed our petition for Fermanagh to be included in the final All-Island Rail Strategy. We met with Translink & the Department for Infrastructure recently - and because of the petition pressure they've asked the consultants working on the final version of the Strategy to think again about Fermanagh. Now that there is an Infrastructure Minister in-place, it is essential that we keep the pressure on for Fermanagh to be included. So please do share this petition with as many people as you can today!

2) ST VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE OF RAIL IN WEST ULSTER

The 14th February is famously a day about love - but in 1965 it also witnessed a shotgun divorce for West Ulster. Because on that day the Derry-Portadown rail route was closed for good - a disastrous decision for infrastructure in the West of Ulster. It meant that :

• Rail was removed entirely from Tyrone & Donegal.
• The return of rail to Fermanagh was made impossible (No Omagh rail, no Fermanagh link).
• Derry became the only city on the island without a rail connnection to Dublin.
• The whole north-west was cut off from Dublin & the rail network.  

Reopening the North-West Rail Corridor between Portadown and Derry (and on to Letterkenny) is essential to bringng rail back to Fermanagh again, as we outline in this short video :

Video = The Valentine's Shutdown of Rail

3) PLEASE JOIN OR DONATE TO HELP OUR WORK

2024 is shaping up to be a huge year for the campaign to improve and restore rail across West & Mid-Ulster. So if you can, please do join and/or donate to help us in that work. We're an unpaid voluntary community campaign group, and campaigning is expensive to do properly (e.g. producing leaflets, creating videos, bookiing rooms for events etc). So if you can help our work at all by making a donation - no matter how small - that would be greatly appreciated. Please donate here = DONATE

Also - the more members we have, the more clout we have when we meet with Ministers and officials. So please do consider joining us as well = JOIN US

Thanks again for you support for the campaign to bring rail back to Fermanagh again. Please do continue to give us your suppport across this crucial year for rail in West/Mid-Ulster.  

Best Regards,

Steve Bradley (Chair - Into The West).

P.S Please do consider Joining or Donating to support our work in what will be a crucial year for rail in Derry/Londonderry, Tyrone, Fermanagh & Donegal.