Motion: Island Strategic Rail Review

Council notes the publication of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review and recognises the significant economic and environmental opportunities available to this District should it achieve full and proper  rail connectivity.

Council welcomes the inclusion of Omagh in the review and  welcomes the increased connectivity and opportunities that could be  provided by such a rail link in Omagh.

Council notes with great disappointment the inexcusable exclusion of  Fermanagh from the review, which would leave Fermanagh as the only county in Ireland to have no rail access. We note that this area

already faces a large transport infrastructure deficit and the plans  outlined in the Review will only exacerbate this, excluding a large portion of this District's inhabitants from fair and equitable access to  public transport.

Council resolves to write to Eamon Ryan, Minister of Transport and, in the absence of a Stormont Executive, to the permanent secretary of the Department of Infrastructure outlining this Council's grave  concerns around the exclusion of Fermanagh and to request that the All-Island Strategic Rail Review is withdrawn in its current format and  re-drafted to include an Enniskillen to Omagh line and an Enniskillen  to Clones line, as considered in packages 3a and 3d of the Review's work packages.

Furthermore, this Council requests all the data used to determine the inclusion or exclusion of all lines including stop by stop breakdowns of estimated passenger numbers and travel times, which are essential to the understanding of the decisions made in the report and to allow comparison between included and excluded stops and lines.