Economic Development \ Local Infrastructure \ Transport

Ports

Warrenpoint Port

Warrenpoint is strategically located at the head of Carlingford Lough on the East Coast of Ireland on the borders of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Situated 72km south of Belfast and 115km north of Dublin, Warrenpoint has taken advantage of its favourable geographical position to develop trade to and from both the North and South of Ireland. Particularly strong growth has been achieved in recent years in the importation of timber and steel and animal feed.

Timber is regularly imported from Scandinavia, Canada and the Soviet Union and block stone from the continent. Paper is an area where efficient handling has enabled Warrenpoint Port to obtain the largest market share of any port in Ireland, North or South. In excess of 90% of the paper used for printing newspapers North and South of Ireland is imported through Warrenpoint Port.

The port has a scheduled Ro/Ro Service with daily services to Heysham on the Lancashire Coast.

The port has a diverse range or scheduled services to continental Europe with a twice weekly container service to Rotterdam, a weekly container and general cargo service to Norway, Sweden and Denmark and regular sailings to the Baltic. For further information contact Quintin Goldie Chief Executive (Telephone No.: 028 41773381).

Other NI Ports

In addition to Warrenpoint Port other NI ports are Larne, the second largest roll on roll off port in the UK, Belfast and Derry. Greenore Port is located close by in the Republic of Ireland.

Click on the map on the right to see a detailed overview of ferries from Ireland to Europe.

Roads

Overview

Newry, located in Northern Ireland, is on the main A1 road linking Dublin to Belfast.

A new Newry by-pass was officially opened by the Environment Minister Mr Malcolm Moss MP on the 28 November 1996. The scheme which took 9 years to fully complete, was constructed in three stages, with the first being completed in 1988 at a cost of £2m. Stage two followed in May 1995 and the third stage at a cost of more than £15m was officially opened on 28 November 1996 as stated above.

A comprehensive study has been completed and the study has recommended the path of the proposed Newry - Dundalk Cross-Border Link dual carriageway. This report evaluated three route options between Newry and Dundalk, including a thorough assessment of all technical, financial and environmental aspects. The new link road, estimated to cost £73m will be a dual carriageway standard with limited access to meet the needs of the projected traffic on this strategic cross border route. While accepting the recommendations of the study, a final decision on the line of the new road has not been taken at this stage. Therefore a completion date for the new road has yet to be fixed.

Road Distances from Newry

Bus

There are eight Ulsterbus expresses daily (70 mins), many stopping services, all-connecting with Warrenpoint and Rostrevor as well as Belfast and Dublin. Therefore there is a good bus service between Newry and other centres in the district. Newry bus station has been relocated in Soho Car Park and is now a state of the art facility.

Rail

Newry is situated on the main Belfast (40 minutes) to Dublin (75 minutes) rail line, therefore linking it to the rest of Ireland.

The Enterprise provides 8 services, a 33% increase, which are operated each way Monday to Saturday, starting at 06.45 from Belfast and arriving at Dublin at 9am, while the Dublin Train leaves at 0740. The timings, which were influenced by the market research study, enable business passengers in particular, to undertake a full working day in Belfast or Dublin. The last trains leave Belfast at 20.10 and Dublin at 20.30, with the maximum interval between services being 2.5 hours.

The Enterprise Train stops in Newry on its way to Dublin from Belfast six times a day Monday to Friday, and on the Dublin to Belfast journey.

Airports

The above airports are within easy driving distances of Newry and have excellent long and short-term parking facilities.

London is one hour by air from both Dublin and Belfast. Other major European cities are between 1.5 hours and 3 hours from Dublin. There are also direct flights from Ireland to Boston, (5.5 hours), New York (7 hours), Chicago (9 hours) and Los Angeles (12.5 hours). Tokyo is 18.5 hours and Sydney 27 hours flying time from Dublin.

Click on the map on the left to see a detailed overview of flight paths from Ireland to Europe.