Portrush railway station

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

Portrush
NIR Class 3000 train at Portrush in 2012
General information
Location	Portrush Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Coordinates	55.202554°N 6.653696°W / 55.202554; -6.653696
Owned by	NI Railways
Operated by	NI Railways
Line(s)	Portrush
Platforms	3
Tracks	3
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
Parking	none
Accessible	disabled access and disabled toilet facilities
Architect	Gregory Architects (2018)
History
Opened	1855
Rebuilt	2019
Key dates
1855	Station opened
1954	Goods traffic ceased
2008	Station refurbished
2018	Re-development works and ticket office replacement
Passengers
2022/23	517,659 [1]
2023/24	568,569 [2]
NI Railways Translink NI railway stations
Route map (Click to expand) Show NI Railways Network map Legend Portrush Dhu Varren Cromore University Belfast–Derry line to Derry ~ Londonderry Coleraine Belfast–Derry line to Lanyon Place This diagram: view talk edit Show Coleraine–Portrush line route diagram
Location Portrush Location in Northern Ireland Show map of Northern Ireland Portrush Location on the island of Ireland Show map of island of Ireland

History

The station in the 1890s, with tramway in foreground

NIR Class 80 train at Portrush in 2000

The station, which is 67¾ miles from Belfast, was opened on 4 December 1855. 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";^[3] it is now occupied by a retail unit,^[4] 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.

The large 1892 grandfather clock from the station was returned to Portrush in 2007 and is displayed in Barry's Amusements complex^[5] 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 largest visitor accommodation in the town. The Giant's Causeway Tramway began in Eglinton Street alongside the station.

A single branch line was built from the station to Portrush harbour in 1866. It closed in 1949. Part of this line is now a pedestrian walkway; a footbridge has replaced the railway's former harbour bridge.

Modernisation

Refurbished Portrush Train station in 2019

In 2018, Graham Construction was appointed as the Principal Contractor to carry out development works to Portrush Station.^[6] This formed part of a wider £17 million investment to regenerate Portrush town ahead of The Open golf championship.^[7]

The works involved demolition of the existing ticket office in order to replace it with a larger, station building complete with concourse waiting area, staff rooms and public toilets. The platforms were extended to improve and increase commuter access. New steel canopies have been installed to Platform 1 and to central Platforms 2 and 3. The old masonry walls on Eglinton Street were replaced with newly constructed, stone-clad walls and artistic metalwork. Works to the new station commenced in April 2018 and were completed in Spring/Summer 2019 in time for The Open in July 2019.^[8]

Service

Monday to Friday, first 2 trains from Portrush are through trains to Belfast Grand Central. The rest of the day, an hourly service operates to Coleraine railway station.

On Saturdays, the first train from Portrush is a through train to Belfast Grand Central. The rest of the day, an hourly service operates to Coleraine railway station.

On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Coleraine railway station, with the service extending to Belfast Grand Central every two hours.

Monday to Sunday, all passengers for Castlerock railway station, Bellarena railway station and Derry~Londonderry railway station must change at Coleraine railway station.

Ulsterbus services connect Portrush to nearby Portstewart and Bushmills.

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

References

1. "FOI1317 NIR Footfall 2223.xlsx". www.whatdotheyknow.com. 17 April 2023. Archived from the original on 31 October 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
2. "FOI Footfall 2023 2024 figures PDF.pdf". www.whatdotheyknow.com. 7 May 2024. Archived from the original on 7 July 2024. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
3. Currie, J. R. L. (1973). The Northern Counties Railway, vol. 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5934-7.
4. "Club soi". Archived from the original on 6 August 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
5. "Barry's Portrush". Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
6. "Visitors to Portrush will see results of major multi-million pound revamp". 18 June 2019. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
7. "£17m Portrush regeneration project tees off ahead of Open Championship". 22 February 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
8. Translink. "New Portrush Train Station Development - Translink". www.translink.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2018.

External links

• Media related to Portrush railway station at Wikimedia Commons