Londonderry line hold up raised at Stormont

Speaking after the meeting, East Derry Sinn Féin MLA Cathal Ó hOisín said: “Sinn Féin took the opportunity to raise the issue of the procurement policy with officials from Translink today at the Regional Development Committee in Stormont.

“Procurement procedures within the company are severely lacking given the fact that they have been unable to acquire the necessary signaling equipment needed for the upgrade of the Derry Coleraine rail line to proceed on time.

“The £22m upgrade to the line will now not be completed until 2015 which is totally unacceptable given that this project has been in the pipeline for many years.

“I asked officials for an update as to why this equipment has not be acquired earlier and what action is being taken to get it as soon as possible.

“The lack of signaling equipment will mean that the passing loop proposed for the line will now not happen until 2015 which means extra trains cannot be introduced severely hampering the service.”