Overview of North/South and cross-border co-operation in TRANSPORT

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The development of transport infrastructure and policies is a critical area for all-island co-operation. Recent newspaper reports and the all-island economic study of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Council have highlighted the potential for co-operation on the rolling out of transport infrastructure. Great air access onto the island, better cross-border primary roads and improvement to ports infrastructure have all been mentioned for possible joint North/South financing and planning.

There are many reasons for this interest. In the first place, roads and railway lines cross the Irish border in many places. By one estimate over 200 roads and fifteen railway lines crossed the border in the 1920s. Over time back-to-back policy making and security issues meant that the border became a barrier. Separate rationalisations of the two railway services had a significant effect on the transport grid leaving only one cross-border rail service. The back-to-back development of roads and public transport infrastructure out from two urban hubs (Dublin and Belfast) has also had a negative impact on peripheral and cross-border regions.

These negative factors were one part of the overall infrastructural deficit, North and South, which has long affected transport on the island of Ireland and, therefore, both economic and social interaction. Therefore, the improvement of infrastructure has been a key area for EU funding programmes since the 1990s. Border Ireland captures much of this work, particularly where there has been a direct or indirect cross-border element.

Even more relevant to cross-border co-operation was the decision taken in 1998 to make collaboration in the area of transport one of the six areas for co-operation through the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC). The priority areas identified for co-operation in the transport in 1998 are:

• The coordination of strategic planning of roads, ports, rail and air services; and
• The sharing of expertise, information and costs in improving road and rail safety.

The Belfast and Dublin administrations through the NSMC have been partially successful in improving co-operation. Under the second priority joint work began in road safety. Cross-border advertising campaigns have been run since 1998 and the joint endorsement of road traffic offences is now finally in the planning stage. An all-island travel scheme for pensioners is also out for consultation on both sides of the border.

In terms of strategic planning co-operation has existed on key routes where rail or bus services operate. These include the Belfast/Dublin Enterprise service and the inter-urban cross-border services offered jointly by Ulsterbus and Bus Éireann. Also, in terms of air access, the City of Derry Airport has long been seen by the two governments as a key service to offer air access to the North West. Their commitment was reinforced in September 2005 by €15 million in joint financing to further develop the airport. For ports the responsible government departments, North and South, completed research in 2005 on current and future capacity across the island.

However, in the key area of roads infrastructure North/South co-operation has been slow to emerge. This is now changing. In February 2005 the two roads authorities, North and South, launched a single contract to build the 14 km A1/N1 Newry to Dundalk Link Road as a final step in building a motorway from the M50 in Dublin to Newry. According to recent newspaper reports the joint government and EU financing of this €122 million project may act as a model for further co-operation on a road linking Derry and Dublin as well as other primary roads under the 2007-2013 development plans.

Types of transport activities on Border Ireland

There are over 250 transport activities recorded on Border Ireland, which makes up eight per cent of the total number of North/South and cross-border activities which have been supported by government and EU funding programmes since 1982.

The 250 activities are divided into five transport sub-sectors as shown in the chart below. The most obvious feature is that 85% of all transport activities have been road improvement schemes. Most of these are to improve the physical infrastructure though the small number of road safety and traffic management programmes also fall into this area.

The other 15% of transport activities have focused mainly on infrastructural improvements or additions in the border region. These have included port and airport safety equipment and bus and rail stations. Under community transport the provision of services and training for peripheral rural areas or disabled groups have been popular activities. The list of 250 does not include transport infrastructure which has been developed specifically for tourism uses. Thus, the Shannon/Erne Waterway, the Lough Foyle ferry and the idea for a ferry in Carlingford Lough are not included here.

Chart 1: Breakdown of transport cross-border activities, 1990-2005

Organisations involved in transport co-operation

There are nineteen organisations which are designated as being in the transport sector in Border Ireland and which have been involved in cross-border co-operation. These range from the large agencies (like the National Roads Authority) and transport operators (such as Translink) to the port companies and community transport groups (both regional and national).

However, the figure of nineteen should not be taken as a definitive guide to organisations involved in transport co-operation. For example, it does not include local authorities from the Southern border counties which have played a critical role in road improvement schemes in that region. The same local authorities have also been central to cross-border transport planning partnerships which have been formed since 2000, under the management of the Irish Central Border Area Network (ICBAN).
Changes in transport co-operation over time?

Almost 230 of the 251 transport activities recorded on Border Ireland were completed before 2000. These were exclusively funded under the INTERREG I, II and Peace I programmes and the vast majority (196) were small improvement schemes on local roads. Many of the schemes were carried out in the counties along the border but there appears to have been little or no cross-border co-operation between the organisations involved. The priority, instead, appears to have been the improvement of the roads infrastructure in the border region.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. Under the Peace I programme, there were some road schemes which crossed the border and involved co-operation between organisations. One of these schemes was a flagship project: the rebuilding of Aghalane Bridge (renamed the George Mitchell Bridge) between Kesh and Pettigo. This proved a much reported project, involved co-operation between the National Roads Authority and Roads Service (NI) and received almost €7 million in Peace I monies.

Beyond the roads infrastructure there was some support for the ports in the border region (particularly Warrenpoint and Londonderry) and also its bus stations. Under air transport the regional airports in Enniskillen and Derry also received small amounts of support from the EU funding programmes. Again, the absence of cross-border co-operation in planning is notable although, in the case of the port authorities in the border waterways, North/South personnel are involved in management decisions.

Chart 2: Numbers of transport activities and funding allocated to the sector, 1990-2005

There have been major changes since 2000 in the period of the Peace II and INTERREG IIIA programmes. As Chart 2 above shows, the changes include a much smaller number of activities (20) and the larger scale of individual projects. Moreover, there has also been a greater element of cross-border co-operation involved in each. Roads have remained the largest area of work including funding for a consultation process on the Newry/Dundalk road and a rural roads scheme involving local authorities from both sides of the border, Roads Service and ICBAN. Another cross-border partnership between the National Roads Authority and Roads Service has also given rise to the INSTANT project for traffic and road safety management in the Dublin/Belfast corridor, something which emerged from earlier research under the NSMC in 2000.

Since 2000 the border region’s ports (including Derry, Drogheda and Warrenpoint) have, again, all received infrastructural support, the latter being part-financed to create a dock for shellfishery vessels in Carlingford Lough. In the air transport area the major inter-governmental support to the tune of €15 million, to assist the development of the City of Derry airport as a regional air hub, has been noted above. Finally, the community transport associations, North and South, have been funded to offer training and advisory services for that growing sector in the border region.

Research on cross-border travel

The statistics for cross-border travel have been trending upwards since the 1990s. In 2005 1.8 million people crossed the border by bus or train; in the same year 217,000 crossed the border South-to-North to holiday and 570,000 vice versa. However, research has also shown that growth in cross-border travel is sluggish when compared to other inter-urban routes within the two jurisdictions. The growth in Dublin/Belfast road and rail travel since 1995 has been lower than the Dublin/Cork route, so that Dublin/Belfast remains a less important route. This suggests either a lack of reasons to travel or that cross-border travel will only increase faster with greater connectivity. Further research into the motivations for and barriers against cross-border travel and the role of policy in influencing these is certainly needed.

Successful cross-border approaches?

The question of sustainability of cross-border co-operation in the transport sector is a different one for different organisations. The information on Border Ireland would suggest that the vast majority of transport projects (ie: road improvement schemes) have been one-off projects. However, since 2000, there has been an attempt to develop a more strategic approach. One example of this is a recent report (Roads to the West), launched by ICBAN and the North West Region Cross Border Group, which has stressed the benefits of an area-based approach both to infrastructural planning and to cross-border co-operation.

One recommendation of the Roads to the West report is that, at a regional level within the border region, partnerships are the way forward in transport planning. The example used for such a partnership is the one led by ICBAN for its rural road and port improvement schemes (2003-2006). Such a partnership may have a potential life beyond individual infrastructure projects as well as answering some of the questions about how local authorities, regional and national roads bodies and other groups can work together to deliver infrastructure on a strategic cross-border basis.

The private sector, obviously, has other benchmarks for successful approaches. Any cross-border transport services operated by rail or air will have their own commercial pressures which then decide how viable the service is. In 2004 figures 1.8 million bus and train passengers crossed the border which shows a strong market for these services. Government support for air flights on the Dublin/Derry and Cork/Belfast routes offers another approach to building sustainable cross-border services. Creating and developing a market for these services will continue to be a key part of sustainability for this sector.

The community and voluntary sector also has a key role to play in transport because of the peripheral nature of parts of the border region and the disadvantage and barriers this causes. Lobbying for resources and infrastructure for rural and peripheral border areas make the local and regional approaches adopted by community transport groups, such as Rural Lift, or the co-operation between councils and Chambers of Commerce, over the Lough Foyle ferry, critical for the impacts of ongoing transport co-operation.

Concluding points

Co-operation in transport policy and planning may be about to see a step-change in terms of commitment of resources and government action. Border Ireland offers a guide to cross-border activity in the transport sector from the 1990s up to the present day. This briefing note has stressed the shift from one-off and back-to-back infrastructural projects towards more joined-up action over that period. The potential for further development along this road has been captured in a recent report by the International Centre for Local and Regional Development which offers ideas for even great North/South collaboration in the transport field, among others. If there is room for the sort of local input offered by the partnerships led by ICBAN and others, which can ensure that the needs of the border region are not ignored, then the future of transport co-operation can be a bright one.

Further reading

1. International Centre for Local and Regional Development and InterTradeIreland, Spatial Strategies on the Island of Ireland: Developing a Framework for Collaborative Action (2006).
2. Irish Central Border Area Network and the North West Region Cross Border Group, Roads to the West (2006).
3. Liam O’Dowd and Mary Gordon, Cross-border roads: the contradictions of closing and opening the Border (discussion paper for the Mapping Frontiers, Plotting Pathways research programme, 2005).