Portrush railway station
Portrush  | |
|---|---|
.jpg) NIR Class 3000 train at Portrush in 2012 | |
| General information | |
| Location | Portrush Northern Ireland, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 55°12′09″N 6°39′13″W / 55.202554°N 6.653696°W |
| 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 |
| 2018 | Re-development works and ticket office replacement |
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, 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.
Modernisation
In 2018, GRAHAM Construction were appointed as the Principal Contractor to carry out development works to Portrush Station. The works will involve demolition of the existing ticket office in order to replace it with a larger, modern station building. The platforms will undergo an extension to accommodate more commuter access. New steel canopies will be installed to Platform 1 and to central Platforms 2 and 3. The boundary walls on Eglinton Street will be replaced with newly constructed, stone-clad walls. Works to the new station commenced in April 2018.
The train station is to form part of the regeneration of Portrush town. The new station is due to be completed in Spring 2019 ahead of the Open Golf Championship in 2019.[5]
Current Service
From Monday to , 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.
References
- ^ a b "Portrush station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 28 August 2007.
- ^ Currie, J. R. L. (1973). The Northern Counties Railway, vol. 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5934-7.
- ^ "Club soi". Archived from the original on 6 August 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Barry's Portrush". Retrieved 22 July 2007.
- ^ Translink. "New Portrush Train Station Development - Translink". www.translink.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
External links
Media related to Portrush railway station at Wikimedia Commons
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