Boris starts study into rail tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland

After approval by Mr Johsnton, Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of Network Rail, has asked experts to conduct a review of a potential tunnel between Stranraer and Larne.

Doug Oakervee, the author of a Government-commissioned report that gave HS2 - the high speed rail link between London and the north of England - the green light earlier this year, will lead the analysis.

Last year Mr Johnson asked civil servants to consider a 21-mile bridge between NI and Scotland at a cost of £20bn, however a tunnel is now being considered among fears that high winds could close a bridge for 100 days a year.

Senior economist at Ulster University, Dr Esmond Birnie, said increasing the speed and reducing the cost of moving goods and people between NI and Great Britain would be “very welcome”. A tunnel would be relatively cheaper than a bridge, he said.

“I have no doubt there would be economic benefits but I doubt if they would be large enough to outweigh the billions spent,” he said. “And remember that money could have been spent in some other way, for example, on health, education or increasing innovation in the NI economy.”

DUP MLA Keith Buchanan, a member of the Assembly’s Infrastructure Committee, said nobody should object to a review.

“Too many people appear to prefer their own self-appointed viewpoint rather than wait to be informed by the work of experts,” he said. “Our connections to the rest of the UK are absolutely vital for the Northern Ireland economy and it is important the Government deliver on the ambition they have stated.”

UUP leader Steve Aiken said there was no harm in a review. “However his should in no way should be allowed to distract from the most immediate and impending threat to connectivity within the United Kingdom which is the Northern Ireland Protocol and the border in the Irish Sea, which was disgracefully endorsed and promoted by the Prime Minister`s own Government”.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council welcomed “all discussion on improving connectivity and levelling up the economy across the UK”.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of the Port of Larne in transporting goods and services, it said.

However the Department for Infrastructure said Minister Nichola Mallon was disappointed that the review had been launched without consultation.

A Department for Infrastructure spokesperson said: “The Minister for Infrastructure is disappointed that the Department for Transport (DfT) in London has launched a study of transport connectivity that disregards the role of the Devolved Administrations and its Ministers with respect to transport and infrastructure.

“Minister Mallon is clear, funding for infrastructure in Northern Ireland is absolutely needed but it is for locally elected, locally accountable Ministers to decide how money is spent to best serve communities here. Minister Mallon has written jointly with her counterparts in Scotland and Wales to express her concern and continues to press the British Government for the funding for the commitments it signed up to in New Decade, New Approach to deliver infrastructure projects that will truly transform lives, our communities, economy and environment.”

Sinn Fein and the SDLP were invited to comment.

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