Railway exhibition reignites call for Navan-Drogheda line

During Heritage Week, the Solstice Arts Centre featured a history and architecture exhibition celebrating 175 years of Navan Railway. Dr Siobhan Osgood also delivered a lecture to a packed attendance on local railway history since the “Navan Branch Line” was opened in 1850 by the Dublin and Drogheda Railway. Scheduled passenger services ceased in 1958. Since then, the population along the line has probably grown by 70,000, prompting demand for a reinstatement of rail services for the Meath capital and adjacent areas.

The decades old campaign to restore rail services locally has been frustrated by long delays and costs associated with establishing a direct Navan-Dublin rail service. This has led for those of us members of the Commuter North Rail Users Group (CNRUG) to repeat our call for the urgent and cost effective reinstatement of passenger services on the Drogheda-Navan line (which in recent decades has serviced freight traffic successfully and profitably).

This would offer an almost immediate solution for a much needed rail service from Navan to Drogheda and onwards on the Northern Rail Line, capitalising on the recent increased frequency of the Belfast-Dublin “Enterprise” service and the addition of DART+ commuter trains between Dublin and Drogheda scheduled for 2026.

This rail line should be known as “The Boyne Valley Railway,” which would serve not just daily commuters travelling to or from Navan and Drogheda (and onwards to Dundalk; Dublin, Belfast and points in-between) but also tourists and leisure travellers. For example, on completion of the Boyne Greenway, visitors could walk or cycle the route and then take the train for the return journey. Drogheda and Navan are already important public transport hubs in the North East. Reinstating the rail line would also reduce car dependency for workers and students in the Greater Drogheda and Navan catchment areas.

Whilst Louth and Meath - located on the strategically important Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor – have public transport links running East-West between the two counties including the availability of a rail freight service, we lack a much needed passenger rail service. North of the Boyne Valley, there is much focus on growing economic ties on the Dundalk-Newry axis. The Drogheda-Navan axis needs just as much attention from the State and its agencies. Reinstating the Navan-Drogheda line as the Boyne Valley Railway would be good for commuters; visitors and businesses alike and would play a key role in countering the economic gravitational pull of the nearby capital city while attracting both foreign direct investment (FDI) and indigenous industry.

There is also the need to urgently create local jobs in the era of climate change when so many students and workers in both the Navan and Greater Drogheda catchment areas are compelled to travel long distances for employment and Third Level education – creating a real economic, environmental and social burden on those families and their communities.

The campaign for a Navan-Dublin rail service has been ongoing for several decades, with slow progress being made with successive Governments, evocative of the lack of speed along the West Clare Railway, immortalised by Percy French.

In 2024, the National Transport Authority revised earlier cost estimates to suggest the 40 kilometre extension from the station at M3 Parkway north of Dunboyne to Navan could cost up to €3 Bn. If “creeping costs” led to the Navan-Dunboyne rail line reaching a cost of €4 Bn., that would represent a staggering €100,000,000 (one hundred million euro) per kilometre !

With current and planned improvements to the frequency of rail services between Drogheda, Dublin and Belfast and the fact that the Navan-Drogheda line has been providing a profitable and viable freight service for Tara Mines for several decades, a much more modest capital investment on the Boyne Valley Railway would promptly secure a new generation of rail commuters pending the construction of the Navan-Dunboyne route which would perfectly complement the Boyne Valley Railway. Together, they would offer enhanced rail services for businesses and communities in the Louth-Meath area, increasing its attractiveness for inward investment and much needed local jobs, countering the very significant numbers of locals forced to make long commutes to work or college.

In the interim, like the Limerick to Limerick Junction service, the Boyne Valley Railway could “shuttle” passengers from Navan to Drogheda (and vice versa), connecting with a wide range of north and southbound services there – in 25 minutes or less. With a platform extension in Navan, some Dublin bound trains currently originating in Drogheda for Dublin Connolly could then commence in Navan without adding extra pressure on the busy Northern line pending “four-tracking” of key sections of the route. In time, intermediate stations could be reinstated or developed.

All this could be achieved for millions in contrast to the Navan-Dunboyne Pace route estimated to cost billions. Yet I have not seen any official costings or estimates for this interim solution which “lies in plain sight.” Even more shocking is the fact that this operational railway line was excluded from consideration in the All-Island Strategic Rail Review (AISRR) which imagined new services being established in “rail-less” counties such as Cavan; Monaghan; Donegal and Tyrone – doubtless at an eye watering cost.

I opened this piece referring to the exhibition and lecture outlining 175 years of Navan Railway – this should be no longer a history lesson reflecting passenger services that ceased almost seven decades ago. As a matter of urgency, the Government and its agencies must restore passenger services on the Navan-Drogheda line, branding it the Boyne Valley Railway – and all for a fraction of the costs and lead time associated with alternative rail projects in other areas.