THANK YOU ! 

On behalf of Into The West, thank you for supporting our recent petition to force Translink to rethink their plan to run a 'special' train for Derry GAA supporters from Belfast. As a result of your backing, Translink were forced to acknowledge that their proposal was unacceptable - and they hurriedly arranged for a connecting train to be added from Derry, Bellarena and Coleraine. More importantly, we hope that they have learned from this experience and won't make the same mistake again. So whilst the Derry team didn't get the result we all hoped for on the pitch, thanks to your support our county still secured a victory for better public transport. So thank you again.

OUR NEXT CAMPAIGN - A DIRECT TRAIN TO DUBLIN

With so much interest in our GAA Special Train petition (1,500 signatures), we will be launching a new campaign this Autumn to return rail to Tyrone & Donegal and secure direct trains from Derry to Dublin. We will be pushing for this to happen in 3 ways/stages :

1) Short Term : Trains from Belfast to Dublin should be coordinated with the arrival & departure times of trains from Belfast to Derry (at the moment there is a gap of up to 1hr 55mins).

2) Medium Term : Direct through-trains should be run from Derry to Dublin, via Belfast.

3) Long-Term : The former railway line between Derry and Portadown should be reopened (and also continued on to Letterkenny). This would give the North-West a direct rail route to Dublin again, with the journey time expected to be between 3hrs and 3hrs 30mins.

If you would like us to keep you informed on this new campaign, please send an email to us at info@intothewest.org, and put 'Newsletter' in the subject header and your full name in the text of the email. You'll then be the first to hear about this exciting new Autumn campaign.

Thanks again for your support for this petition and for Into The West's broader ambition of improving rail access across the West of NI. With your continued backing, the sky is the limit for what we can all achieve together.

Best Regards,

Steve Bradley,

Chair - Into The West