The Railway Industry Association’s inaugural All Island Rail Summit in Belfast on February 18 is focusing on opportunities for the rail supply chain across the island of Ireland, says Neil Walker, Director for Northern Ireland & Exports at RIA.
The UK’s Railway Industry Association celebrated its 150th anniversary as a trade body in 2025, an opportunity to reflect on the association’s journey over those 15 decades and consider how the railway has evolved in that time. There was a sense that the more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same, with the tension between short-term political priorities of governments and the long-term strategic needs of the industry a consistent and enduring theme.
Throughout its history, RIA’s primary purpose has always been about supporting rail suppliers in the UK rail market, but this has also included identifying new export markets for members, not least because global rail growth has been so significant over the last century or so.
The outlook for Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s rail exports across the globe is strong, with the rail market in the Republic of Ireland a particularly attractive prospect for UK suppliers at the present time. This is one of the reasons why RIA Northern Ireland was established in 2024, raising the profile of rail and supporting the extensive opportunities across the whole of the Irish rail market, working alongside the RIA Exports team.
A leadership team was established in 2025 with senior industry representation, and the group has undertaken broad stakeholder engagement, including ministerial meetings in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We have been hugely encouraged by the positive response our establishment has received from politicians, civil servants and other decision makers.
In June 2025, RIA Northern Ireland held a reception at the seat of the devolved Northern Irish legislature, Stormont. This was hosted by Assembly Member Peter McReynolds, celebrating the rail sector’s economic and social contribution, with Northern Irish Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins also in attendance. A technical seminar took place the next day, with key partners including Translink, Alstom, Babcock and AtkinsRéalis.
All-island aspirations
This activity very much provides the backdrop to the inaugural All Island Rail Summit, which will take place in Belfast on February 18 2026. The event represents the next phase of our offer to members in engaging with the ambitious rail investment plans across the island of Ireland. It is well timed, given the Rail Project Prioritisation Strategy for the island, published on December 15 last year.
The summit will bring together member companies of all sizes with clients, influencers and policymakers for a day of informative discussions. It will explore the many projects and opportunities in development across Ireland, and attendees will be able to meet some of the key stakeholders and decision makers from the rail sector and the political landscapes from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
There is no doubt that Ireland is currently one of the most dynamic and exciting rail markets in Europe, and the summit will be the first such event to provide an all-island perspective. Attendees will hear keynote speeches from Kimmins and her counterpart in Dublin, Minister of State at the Department for Transport Sean Canney. Other speakers will include Chris Conway, Group Chief Executive Officer at Translink, and Mary Considine, the newly appointed CEO of Iarnród Éireann.
The political and policy context to the event is the All-Island Strategic Rail Review, which was drafted in 2023 and published in 2024 by the Department of Transport in Ireland and the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. This set out a co-ordinated and strategic vision for the development of the rail network across the island of Ireland over the coming decades.
Key ambitions in the report are to ‘deliver an accessible, efficient, safe and sustainable transport system that supports communities, households and businesses.’ It also seeks to ‘improve the inter-urban and regional/rural rail system for passengers and communities in Ireland and Northern Ireland over the coming decades’. Furthermore, it aspires for ‘rail to be a stronger backbone of a high-quality sustainable transport system, through more track capacity, electrification, increased speeds, higher frequencies and new routes’.
A high-level economic appraisal assessed the review’s value-for-money and estimated that the capital cost of implementing all of the recommendations by 2050 would be around €35bn to €37bn at 2023 prices. It concluded that the economic and societal benefits of the investment would cover the costs.
This strategic ambition is a recognition from both governments that rail not only enables the transport of people and goods in a particularly sustainable way, but that it encourages greater regional accessibility and balanced regional development. The strategy document published in December provides a detailed pathway for sequencing the recommendations of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.
Commenting on the publication of RPPS, RIA Northern Ireland Chair Tristan McMichael said it was ‘an important step forward in the implementation of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review. We welcome the short-term rail infrastructure investments such as new passing loops and platforms, which will provide immediate benefits. RIA Northern Ireland also recognises the longer-term ambitions, including inter-city electrification and capacity upgrades on the rail network.’
RIA and the RIA Northern Ireland leadership team look forward to supporting our members and the wider UK supply chain on opportunities covering the whole of Ireland, and we look forward to welcoming the rail community to Belfast this month.
