Rail campaigners have expressed huge disappointment that the final version of the All-Island Rail Strategy released last week has “abandoned” Fermanagh, claiming it will restrict the county’s future development.

Steve Bradley, the Chairman of the ‘Into The West’ rail campaign for the four counties in the north-west of the island of Ireland, sharply criticised the non-inclusion of the county in the strategy.

The group been campaigning for rail to be restored to Fermanagh, and held a public event in Enniskillen last year.

Mr. Bradley said: “The final version of the All-Island Rail Strategy has at last been released and contains some positive news for Tyrone and Donegal.

"But it has failed badly in its recommendation for Fermanagh.

"There have been two separate public consultations held during the development of this strategy, and each time Fermanagh contributed more responses than anywhere else on the island, despite the county’s small size.

"So there is a clear public demand to see rail return here.

“Despite this, the consultants have recommended that Fermanagh be left as the only county anywhere in the UK or Ireland without rail services.

"Last week, Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd drove to Enniskillen to tell us he supports this decision, describing the £400million cost of restoring rail to Fermanagh as ‘poor value for money’.”

Mr. Bradley criticised the spending of the Department of Infrastructure in other parts of Northern Ireland, adding: “Minister O’Dowd’s Department is currently spending over £340million creating just one new station in Belfast – a city which already has ten other railway stations.

"The Grand Central Station in Belfast is an oversized vanity project which is unlikely to ever need the huge 20 million passenger capacity that it is being built to accommodate.

"Belfast already has more rail stations per capita than anywhere else in the UK.

"Yet somehow, that non-essential project is deemed affordable, whilst spending a similar sum to ensure Fermanagh has a basic level of infrastructure is considered a waste,” he claimed.

Mr. Bradley continued: “For years people here have referred to Fermanagh as 'the forgotten county'.

"The decision to leave it as the only place on the island without basic infrastructure now makes it an abandoned county.

"For Minister O’Dowd to stand in Enniskillen whilst confirming Fermanagh’s status as the leper of Irish infrastructure was ill-judged, and rubbed salt into the wound.

“The good news for the county, however, is that the Rail Strategy is just a set of recommendations.

"Stormont and its politicians will have the final say on whether or not rail should return to Fermanagh, and everyone in this county has a part to play in addressing that.”