Thinking ahead to Belfast International rail link

Routes linking Belfast International airport up to the city proper could be improved if a mooted rail link goes ahead, the Northern Ireland assembly member for South Antrim has insisted.

Present rail connections run within six miles' distance of the airport, but an assembly sitting last month heard that passenger demand was not yet high enough to merit a direct overground link.

The customary threshold for constructing a rail link stipulates that 100 million passengers utilise an airport yearly, regional development minister Conor Murphy last month explained to assembly members.

But environmental and affordability concerns of passengers planning to fly from Belfast International would make the establishment of a new rail link-up a move with "vision", argues Thomas Burns, an SDLP representative.

"The International Airport currently handles around six million passengers a year and is growing at a rapid rate," he told BBC News, adding: "We must get the plans in place now."

At present, passengers hoping to reach the airport by rail are obliged to take a bus which transports them ten km from the airport to Antrim station, but that service runs Monday to Friday only.