Portrush railway station

Portrush
NI Railways

NIR Class 3000 train at Portrush in 2012
Location Portrush
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Coordinates 55°12′09″N 6°39′13″W / 55.202554°N 6.653696°W / 55.202554; -6.653696Coordinates: 55°12′09″N 6°39′13″W / 55.202554°N 6.653696°W / 55.202554; -6.653696
Owned by NI Railways
Operated by NI Railways
Platforms 3
Construction
Structure type At-grade
Key dates
1855 Station opened
1954 Goods traffic ceased
2008 Station refurbished
UK Railways portal

Portrush railway station is the terminus of the Coleraine-Portrush railway line and serves the seaside town of Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

History

The station in the 1890s, with tramway in foreground

The station, which is 67¾ miles from Belfast, was opened on 4 December 1855.[1] To accommodate excursion and holiday traffic, extensive reconstruction by the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, under the direction of its engineer and architect Berkeley Deane Wise, was completed in 1893. Three platforms were provided (only one is now in regular use) together with a train shed (demolished) and a station building in a "half-timbered" Mock Tudor style with a clock tower, described by Currie as "certainly one of the most handsome railway buildings in Ireland";[2] it is now occupied by a retail unit,[3] with a small newer concrete block ticket office behind it serving as the current station building. Goods traffic to the station closed on 20 September 1954.[1]

The large 1892 grandfather clock from the station was returned to Portrush in 2007 and is displayed in Barry’s Amusements complex[4] adjacent to the station. Other survivals from the past are some semaphore signals (of the "somersault" type) and an early water tank.

Formerly the railway owned the Northern Counties Hotel, the principal such establishment in town. A line once continued beyond the station to serve the harbour, and the Giant's Causeway Tramway began in Eglinton Street alongside the station.

NIR Class 80 train at Portrush in 2000

Current Service

From Monday to Saturday, an hourly service operates from Portrush. Trains alternate every hour between shuttle services to Coleraine, and through services to Great Victoria Street. The shuttle services connect with trains to and from Londonderry Waterside at Coleraine.

On Sunday, there are no through services to Belfast, and only a shuttle service operates to Coleraine every two hours. Passengers intending for stations elsewhere on the Belfast-Derry railway line must change trains at Coleraine.

Ulsterbus services connect Portrush to nearby Portstewart and Bushmills.

Preceding station NI Railways Northern Ireland Railways Following station
Dhu Varren   Northern Ireland Railways
Coleraine-Portrush
  Terminus
Historical railways
Cromore   Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine
and Portrush Junction Railway

Ballymena-Portrush
  Terminus

References

  1. 1 2 "Portrush station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
  2. Currie, J. R. L. (1973). The Northern Counties Railway, vol. 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5934-7.
  3. "Club soi". Retrieved 2007-07-22.
  4. "Barry’s Portrush". Retrieved 2007-07-22.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 15, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.