AQO 1146/22-27 Oral question to the Minister for Infrastructure
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure for an update on the redevelopment of Lurgan Train Station.
Asked by Eóin Tennyson MLA on 7 November 2024
- Answered
- Oral
- Answered in the Chamber
- Tabled
- 7 November 2024
- Answer due by
- 18 November 2024
- Answered
- 18 November 202411 days after tabling
- Department
- Department for Infrastructure
- Priority question
- No
Answer
Answered in the Assembly Chamber on 18 November 2024. Extract from the Official Report (Hansard), including any supplementary questions:
Mr O'Dowd
The new station will replace the one built in the 1970s with a modern, state-of-the-art facility that will provide a greatly needed enhanced passenger experience. It will be fully inclusive and will be a catalyst for future investment in the Lurgan area. It will also promote sustainable transport options and act as an enhanced gateway to the wider rail network across the island of Ireland. It will involve demolishing the existing station building and the adjacent Musgrave MarketPlace building to provide a new railway passenger facility. There will be an additional 60 park-and-ride spaces, a sheltering canopy on both platforms and a pedestrian/cycle bridge that will link the station building and platforms. My Department has already provided £2 million towards the project for the purchase of land adjacent to the station for the new park-and-ride site. Translink has commenced the first step of the planning and engagement process for the proposed redevelopment by submitting a proposal of application notice (PAN) to Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. An application for planning approval for the new station will be submitted to the local council by Translink after community consultation is completed later this month.
Mr Tennyson
I thank the Minister for his answer. As the Minister is a constituency colleague, he will know that, while the increased frequency on the Belfast to Dublin route is welcome, it has created some local concern in Lurgan about the increased congestion. Will those plans do anything to assuage those concerns?
Mr O'Dowd
First, the increased frequency of the Belfast to Dublin connection and the closure of the three sets of gates in Lurgan could have been better managed earlier in the application process for additional funding for the early service to the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). Hindsight is a great thing, but, during planning, greater attention should have been paid to reducing the length of time that gates are closed in that area. My Department and Translink will now have to look at that to see how we can alleviate the issue, and that will be quite an expensive operation. The investment in the railway station sends out a signal to the people of Lurgan that Translink and my Department are invested in them. I am sure that the Member has seen the drawings, as have I.
It will be a state-of-the-art building that will greatly enhance that area of Lurgan and send out the very strong signal that public transport is the way to go.
Mr Speaker
We move on to topical questions.