Moira railway station

Moira
Location	Moira, County Down. (Station in County Antrim) Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Coordinates	54°29′31″N 6°12′54″W / 54.492°N 6.215°WCoordinates: 54°29′31″N 6°12′54″W / 54.492°N 6.215°W
Owned by	NI Railways
Operated by	NI Railways
Platforms	2
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
History
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Moira railway station serves Moira in County Down, Northern Ireland. Despite the station serving the County Down town, the station itself is located in County Antrim, the neighbouring Lagan Canal being the boundary. Moira station is the oldest building on the NIR network today having been opened on 18 November 1841.^[1] The old, now redundant, signal box stands over the station on the Southbound side.

Situated near the M1 motorway, the station is popular amongst commuters from the surrounding area.

In March 2014, NIR started construction of a new footbridge at the Portadown end of the station. The footbridge was completed in August 2014.

Station Buildings

There is a station building and signal cabin on the 'down' platform. Off site, away from the platforms, there is a station master's house. NIR have included in their corporate plans for a new footbridge to be constructed at Moira. The signal cabin was recently repainted. During the construction of the station and the railway thousands of skeletons were unearthed, leading to a greater understanding of the Battle of Moira, the largest battle in the history of Ireland, which had occurred in 637 and the previous details of which were much less well known.

Moira station in the winter.

Moira station in the summer

Lines in the Past

The Ulster Railway brought trains from Belfast Great Victoria Street railway station to Portadown and Armagh railway station in Armagh. Later the Great Northern Railway of Ireland had a much more extensive system with trains to Omagh, Enniskillen, Bundoran, Strabane and Derry/Londonderry being linked, which in the 1950s and 1960s was closed west of Portadown.

Lines in the Present

The station is now part of NIR's Newry-Bangor service. The station is also passed through by the Enterprise intercity service from Belfast Central to Dublin Connolly on the Belfast-Dublin railway line.

Service

Mondays to Saturdays there is a half-hourly service towards Portadown in one direction, with some trains continuing on to Newry; and to Bangor in the other direction, with some trains terminating at Great Victoria Street.

Extra trains operate at peak times, and the service reduces to hourly operation in the evenings.

Although on the Belfast-Dublin line, Enterprise services do not call at Moira station.

On Sundays, the service is hourly in each direction.

Preceding station	Northern Ireland Railways			Following station
Lisburn		Northern Ireland Railways Belfast-Newry		Lurgan
	Historical railways
The Damhead Line open, station closed		Ulster Railway Belfast-Portadown		Pritchard's Bridge Line open, station closed

Station Road in Moira, with the Lagan Canal facing towards Lough Neagh.

Future Link to Armagh City

There is a possible future railway reopening from Portadown railway station to Armagh.

References

1. http://www.ni-environment.gov.uk/moirastationeng.pdf