THE return of post pandemic foreign travel has not been hassle free, as can be seen from multiple news accounts of out of control airport queues, missing luggage, cancelled flights, train strikes. It would almost be enough to make a family yearn for the less stressful Irish holiday where the main issue was agreeing a destination and packing the required luggage into the family car in a modern day version of the Krypton Fcator. That was the kind of holiday most people opted for over the last few summers, and even though it was enforced I am sure most families found new parts of the country to explore and maybe even relived some childhood memories, and felt good doing so.
It may be the case now that the main airports have resolved their personnel issues and security procedures and our family experience of flying from Dublin to Lisbon was as smooth and efficient as it could possibly have been. It meant that our tremendously early airport arrival led to a lengthy wait for the flight to take off, but with a week in the Portugal to look forward to, a good book in hand and the coffee shops open, well that’s the kind of problem I’ll take any day.
Most people return from holiday and report on the weather, the food, the wine and the scenery. I do all that too, but since coming home I have also been extolling the virtues of Portugal’s public transport infrastructure, and wondering if and where we can replicate what they have achieved.
Our main destination was Cascais, a seaside resort 30 kilometres from Lisbon. One of the main attractions was the proximity to the Portugese capital and the ease of getting there and back. The train runs between the two destinations every 20 minutes with the last departure at 1.30am and it takes 40 minutes in total. Indeed nabbing a window seat allows for a wonderful view of the various towns and inlets along the coast, it really is a very pleasurable train journey. The cost? Two euros and forty cents, yes €2.40, almost the exact same cost as a bus journey within Belfast city centre.
Each time we made the journey the trains were busy, but never overcrowded, there were always seats available. The biggest delay was the queue to buy tickets from the automated machines in the station, at prime travel time that could take up to 20 minutes. Our final trip from the centre of Lisbon to the airport was a 40 minute metro journey, costing €1.65 each.
That remarkable value reflects the overall economic pace of living or holidaying in that country, where a morning coffee is €1 and a family meal doesn’t run into hundreds of pounds. But it is also clearly a conscious public policy decision. I know its easier to charge less and put on more train and metro services when the volume of people travelling allows for it and of course when a region relies almost entirely on tourism for its economy then public policy has to reflect that and accommodate the millions of incoming visitors each year.
But when visitors to either of the two main airports in Northern Ireland still have no train connection to Belfast, well, it shows we have a long way to go. In fact with close to one million Northern Ireland residents using Dublin airport each year it is remarkable that none of the airports here are connected to the train network. Remedying this infrastructure deficit will be expensive but the bigger problem will be the lack of political decision making.
The Irish Government and our own Executive have embarked on an All Island Strategic Rail Review which will report shortly. The Irish Government’s Shared Island Unit is the ideal policy vehicle to take forward major rail investment, and it has significant funds attached to its objectives.
But with the Assembly still in deep freeze at the behest of the DUP, it seems unlikely that the Executive will be driving forward any imaginative infrastructure projects in the immediate future. That prevents us from maxing out on our tourism potential.
And we do have that potential, no doubt about that. Lisbon is an amazing city, thronged with people, hosting major art exhibitions and sporting events, built along a great river, doesn’t that sound familiar? The food offering is an attraction all on its own and a lunchtime spent in the Time Out Food Market was a revelation, enough to make a visitor commit to returning very soon!
Belfast has those offerings too, on a smaller scale of course. Just this week the extraordinary must see Ron Mueck exhibition opened at the MAC, we have had major headline concerts all summer all over the city and they still continue, the new Common Market venue in the Cathedral Quarter is effectively our own version of the Lisbon food location, the Feile is about to begin in west Belfast.
Our tourism offering is improving year on year and our visitor numbers will increase too. We need to invest in the infrastructure which makes sure that once the tourist has been to Belfast and Northern Ireland for the first time, they return again and again.
Happy holidays, wherever they are taking you.
:: Brendan Mulgrew is managing partner at MW Advocate (www.mwadvocate.com). Follow him on Twitter at @brendanbelfast
