The Thomas Cook international railway
timetables have been published regularly for over 130
years. They include a section listing scenic railways,
including the Settle and Carlisle line in England, Innsbruck
to Salzburg in Austria, Bilbao to Santander in Spain
and numerous lines in Switzerland.
And there in the list is a line much closer to home.
One which perhaps we don鈥檛 appreciate and use
enough and which we have nearly lost on more than one
occasion.
For the first programme in this series, John Bennett
travelled that line, along Northern Ireland鈥檚
beautiful north coast.
John began his journey in Londonderry which, nowadays,
is very much out on a limb as far as the Irish railway
system is concerned. But at one time the city was very
much a hub of railway activity.
One of Translink鈥檚
sleek new trains at Londonderry Waterside station
Photo:Translink
There were no fewer than four termini. There were two
routes to Belfast 鈥搕he much lamented Great Northern
line through Strabane, Omagh and Dungannon to Portadown
and then on to Belfast and Dublin, closed in 1965, and
the Northern Counties line to Belfast via Coleraine
and Ballymena which at one time was owned by the London
Midland and Scottish Railway.
Then there were two narrow gauge networks. There was
the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway which at one
time linked the city with Letterkenny, Burtonport, Buncrana
and Cardonagh. It is over 50 years since the last train
ran, but the company still exists and operates bus services
from Londonderry into northern Co. Donegal.
And finally there was the Co Donegal Railways Joint
Committee line to Strabane, actually owned by the LMS,
which connected with the rest of the Co Donegal network
to places such as Letterkenny, Glenties, Donegal town,
Ballyshannon and Killybegs at Strabane. These other
lines were jointly owned by the LMS and the GNR(I).
Today only the Northern Counties line survives and
that forms the first part of John鈥檚 journey.
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