Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-16-Speech-2-295"
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"en.20000516.11.2-295"2
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"I would like to speak on this particular subject but from a regional aspect. I cannot speak about high-speed railways in Northern Ireland, never mind the island of Ireland, because the railways do not go at any great speed in that particular part of the world.
It is extremely important that we recognise the importance of a railway system. One thing that has concerned me recently in my region is that, in Europe, we talk about how important to regions it is that we should have the most environmentally friendly type of transport. At the same time within my area people are talking about doing away even with parts of our present minute railway system. I find that totally atrocious.
We have one of the main links between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland between Dublin and Belfast. This is a very important link and one that has been upgraded recently. Probably that would be up to at least half the standard of the rest of continental Europe, but it is very welcome to those of us who live in that area. Then we have the link between Belfast and Larne which links us to the rest of the United Kingdom. Parts of this have had to be closed down because there is not enough money to keep it in repair and upgraded.
We have also recently had Northern Ireland Railways tell us that they are going to close the link between Coleraine and Londonderry which is absolutely unbelievable and totally unacceptable. This is the one commuting area from the Northwest and it takes in part of the Republic of Ireland and the inner shore and peninsula. They need that railway system as a link for those who want to get to Belfast to reach airports and everywhere else. So we have to take a really serious look at what we are talking about here.
For too often within Europe we have talked about trans-European networks – be they road-rail, air or sea – but at the end of the day we are not prepared to put in the finance at either European level or national level. We have to take on board the challenges that come before us and we have to ensure that we have a very highly established rail link. I certainly want it within my region because that is important. There should be no more closures and we should make more finance available to improve the present railway system to have more goods moved by rail and not by road, which is totally unacceptable from an environmental point of view.
It is hurtful when I go back to my region and am told the money is not there. It is hurtful when you go back and you are told that: "No, we must improve the road system – we must not improve the rail system". The rail system has a tremendous future. It is wrong, it is totally unacceptable that it is allowed in any way to be run down."@en1
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