Editing Derry (section)

====Railway history====
=====19th century – early 20th century growth=====
[[File:Map Rail Ireland Viceregal Commission 1906.jpg|thumb|Ireland's railway network in 1906]]
Several railways began operation around the city of Derry within the middle of the 19th century. The companies that set up links helped to provide key links for the city towards other towns and cities across Ireland, for the transportation of passengers and freight. The lines that were constructed featured a mixture of Irish gauge and narrow gauge railways. Companies that operated them included:

* The [[Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway]] (L&ER) – The rail company constructed Derry's first railway in 1845 with [[Irish gauge]] ({{RailGauge|5ft3in}}) track. The line operated from a temporary station at [[Londonderry Cow Market railway station|Cow Market]] on the City side of the Foyle, reaching [[Strabane]] in 1847,<ref name="Hajducki3">{{cite book |last=Hajducki |first=S. Maxwell |date=1974 |title=A Railway Atlas of Ireland |location=Newton Abbott |publisher=[[David & Charles]] |isbn=978-0-7153-5167-3 |at=map 3}}</ref> before being extended from [[Londonderry Cow Market railway station|Cow Market]] to its permanent terminus at Foyle Road in 1850.<ref name="Hajducki2">{{harvp|Hajducki|1974|loc=inset to map 2}}.</ref> The L&ER reached [[Omagh]] in 1852 and [[Enniskillen]] in 1854,<ref name="Hajducki2" /> and was absorbed into the [[Great Northern Railway (Ireland)]] in 1883.<ref>{{cite book |last=Patterson |first=Edward M. |date=1962 |title=The County Donegal Railways |location=Dawlish |publisher=[[David & Charles]] |pages=10–11}}</ref>
* The [[Londonderry and Coleraine Railway]] (L&CR) – The rail company constructed an Irish gauge line to the city in 1852, opening a terminus at Waterside.<ref name="Hajducki2" /> The [[Belfast and Northern Counties Railway]] leased the line from 1861, before taking it over in 1871.
* The [[Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway]] (L&LSR) – The rail company opened a line between Farland Point on [[Lough Swilly]] and a temporary terminus at Pennyburn in 1863,<ref name="Hajducki2" /> before extending the line in 1866 to a more permanent terminus at Graving Dock.<ref name="Hajducki2" /> The L&LSR was conceived to operate on Irish gauge track when it was constructed, but was converted in 1885 to {{RailGauge|3ft}} [[narrow gauge]] to link it with the Letterkenny Railway.
* The [[Londonderry Port|Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners]] (LPHC) – The rail company established a line that linked Graving Dock and Foyle Road stations through Middle Quay in 1867, before extending the line to create a rail connection with Waterside station, via the newly constructed Carlisle Bridge, in 1868.<ref name="Hajducki2" /> When the bridge was replaced in 1933 with the double-deck [[Craigavon Bridge]], the LPHC was assigned to operate on the lower deck.

In 1900, the {{RailGauge|3ft}} gauge [[County Donegal Railways Joint Committee|Donegal Railway]] was extended to the city from Strabane, with construction establishing the [[Londonderry Victoria Road railway station|Londonderry Victoria Road railway terminus]] and creating a junction with the LPHC railway.<ref name="Hajducki2" /> The LPHC line was altered to [[dual gauge]] which allowed {{RailGauge|3ft}} gauge traffic between the Donegal Railway and L&LSR as well as Irish gauge traffic between the GNR and B&NCR. By 1905, the government of the United Kingdom offered subsidies to both the L&LSR and the Donegal Railway to build extensions to their railway networks into remote parts of [[County Donegal]], which soon developed Derry (alongside Strabane) into becoming a key rail hub by 1905 for the county and surrounding regions.<ref>Hajducki, ''op. cit.'', maps 2, 3 & 6</ref> In 1906 the [[Northern Counties Committee]] (NCC, successor to the B&NCR) and the GNR jointly took over the Donegal Railway, making it the [[County Donegal Railways Joint Committee]] (CDRJC).

Alongside the railways, the city was served by a [[standard gauge]] ({{RailGauge|sg}}) tramway, the [[City of Derry Tramways]].<ref name="HajduckiXVII">{{harvp|Hajducki|1974|p=xvii}}.</ref> The tramway was opened in 1897 and consisted of [[Horsecar|horse trams]] that operated along a single line, {{convert|1+1/2|mi|km|round=0.5|abbr=off}} long, which ran along the City side of the Foyle parallel to the LPHC's line on that side of the river.<ref name="Hajducki3" /> The line never converted to electrically operated trams,<ref name="HajduckiXVII" /> and was closed in 1919.<ref name="HajduckiXVII" />

=====20th century decline=====
In 1922, the [[partition of Ireland]] dramatically caused disruptions to the city's rail links, except for the NNC route to {{rws|Coleraine}}.<ref name="Hajducki3" /> The creation of an international frontier with County Donegal changed trade patterns to the detriment of the railways affected by the partition, placing border posts on every line to and from Derry, causing great delays to trains and disrupting timekeeping from custom inspections – the L&LSR faced inspections between Pennyburn and Bridge End; the CDRJC faced inspections beyond Strabane; and the GNR line faced inspections between Derry and Strabane.<ref name="Hajducki3" /> Custom agreements negotiated over the next few years between Britain and Ireland enabled GNR trains to travel to and from Derry – such trains would be allowed to pass without inspection through the Free State, unless they served local stations on the west bank of the Foyle – while goods transported by all railways between different parts of the Free State would be allowed to pass through Northern Ireland under [[Bonded warehouse|customs bond]]. Despite these agreements, local passenger and goods traffic continued to be delayed by customs examinations.

The decline of most of Derry's rail links took place after the Second World War, due to increasing competition by road links. The L&LSR closed its line in 1953, followed by the CDRJC in 1954.<ref name="Hajducki39">{{harvp|Hajducki|1974|loc=map 39}}.</ref> The [[Ulster Transport Authority]], who took over the NCC in 1949 and the GNR's lines in Northern Ireland in 1958, took control of the LPHC railway before closing it in 1962,<ref name="Baker209">{{cite book |last=Baker |first=Michael H. C. |date=1972 |title=Irish Railways since 1916 |location=London |publisher=[[Ian Allan Publishing]] |isbn=9780711002821 |page=209}}</ref> before eventually shutting down the former GNR line to Derry in 1965, after the submission of [[Ulster Transport Authority#The Benson Report|The Benson Report]] to the Northern Ireland Government two years prior to the closure.<ref name="Hajducki39" /><ref name="Baker209" /><ref>{{harvp|Baker|1972|p=155}}.</ref> This left the former L&CR line to Coleraine as the sole railway link for the city, providing a passenger service to Belfast, alongside [[CIÉ]] freight services to Donegal. By the 1990s, the service began to deteriorate.

=====21st century regeneration=====
In 2008, the Department for Regional Development announced plans to relay the track between Derry and Coleraine. The plan, aimed at being completed by 2013, included adding a [[passing loop]] to increase traffic capacity and increasing the number of trains with two additional [[diesel multiple unit]]s.<ref name="RailUpgrade">{{cite news |url=http://www.irishnews.com/articles/540/5860/2008/6/12/590126_34824869487716386&nbsp;m.html |title=£86&nbsp;m upgrade to rail link will 'take half an hour off journey' |last=McKinney |first=Seamus |date=12 June 2008 |work=[[The Irish News]] |access-date=14 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903221802/http://www.irishnews.com/articles/540/5860/2008/6/12/590126_34824869487716386%26nbsp%3Bm.html |archive-date=3 September 2015}}</ref> Additional phases of the plan also included improvements to existing stations along the line and the restoration of the former Victoria Road terminus building to prepare for the relocation of the city's current terminus station to the site, all for completion by late 2019.{{update inline |date=March 2021}} Costing around £86&nbsp;million, the improvements were aimed at reducing the journey time to Belfast by 30 minutes and allowing commuter trains to arrive before 9 a.m. for the first time.<ref name="RailUpgrade" />