Lisburn–Antrim railway line

Lisburn to Antrim line

The closed station at Ballinderry
Overview
Type Commuter rail
Regional rail
Heavy rail
System NI Railways
Status Closed to Passenger Services
Locale Northern Ireland
Termini Lisburn
Antrim
Stations 6 prior to closure
Services 1
Operation
Closed June 2003
Operator(s) NI Railways
Technical
Number of tracks Single-track with passing loops.
Track gauge 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) Irish gauge
Electrification Un-electrified
Operating speed 70 mph (110 km/h)
Route map

Legend
Belfast-Newry railway line
to Dunmurry, Great Victoria Street, Belfast Central
Lisburn Belfast-Dublin railway line Belfast-Newry railway line
 Knockmore
Belfast-Newry railway line
to Lurgan, Portadown, Newry
 Brookmount
 Brookhill
 Meetinghouse Halt
 Ballinderry
 Legatirriff
 Glenavy
 Crumlin
 Aldergrove
 Millar's Bridge Halt
Belfast-Derry railway line
to Mossley West, Belfast Central, Great Victoria Street
 Antrim Belfast-Derry railway line
Belfast-Derry railway line
to Ballymena, Coleraine, Londonderry Waterside

The Lisburn–Antrim railway line is a 20-mile (32 km) line of Northern Ireland Railways. It links Knockmore Junction on the Belfast–Newry railway line with Antrim on the Belfast–Derry railway line. It has been closed to passenger service since 2003.

History

The line opened in 1871 as the Dublin and Antrim Junction Railway.[1] The train service on the line was provided by the Ulster Railway until 1876, and by the Ulster Railway's successor the Great Northern Railway thereafter.[2] In 1879 the D&A Junction ceased to be a separate company and was absorbed by the GNR.[2]

Current status

The line is currently closed to passengers after all rail services were withdrawn from the line in June 2003. The stations at Knockmore, Ballinderry, Glenavy and Crumlin have all been closed.

Translink's reason for closing the line was that it was unable to maintain two routes to Antrim. The Bleach Green — Antrim line which had been closed since 1978 was reopened in 2001, providing a faster route between Belfast Central, Antrim and Londonderry. Translink operated a skeleton service on the line but then gave notice that it would be shut.

The route is still maintained and is used for crew training and train diversions, for example for passenger services on 09 and 23 October 2011 when there were weekend engineering works at Mossley West. Speculation remains that the line could one day re-open under plans to operate a Belfast — Lisburn — Antrim — Belfast circular route, with the possibility of a station for Belfast International Airport which is close to the line at Aldergrove.

The line was to be used for through passenger services in both directions from Belfast Central to Londonderry on Sunday 15 September 2013, in addition to which there was to be a service from Belfast Great Victoria Street to Coleraine in the evening.[3] This could be confirmed by searches for Lisburn to Antrim journeys for mid afternoon on 15 September 2013 in the Translink Journey Planner at http://journeyplanner.translink.co.uk/

Translink's future plans include re-opening this line allowing trains from Derry to run once per hour on an alternating pattern between Bleach Green and Knockmore.

In summer 2012, a section of railway embankment weakened by weather near Knockmore gave way as a train was about to pass over. The driver managed to stop and reverse the train away without incident. The embankment has since been repaired.[4][5]

In January 2015, the two passing loops on the line, at Crumlin and Ballinderry, were decommissioned and removed, leaving no more passing points on the line.[6]

On the 12th September 2016, the Democratic Unionist Party announced that they would propose a motion to reopen the line as part of an Airport Link. It could mean that services could resume on the line in the near future. It would likely mean that Knockmore would be replaced by the new Lisburn West station at the site of the old SERC building a little further down the line.

Notes

  1. ↑ Hajducki, 1974, pages 5, 9
  2. 1 2 Hajducki, 1974, page xiii
  3. ↑ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/uk.railway/-ZSg66ojCJg
  4. ↑ "Passengers escape injury over damaged railway". BBC News. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  5. ↑ "Rail Accident Report 14/2013: Train ran onto a washed-out embankment near Knockmore, Northern Ireland". RAIB. Retrieved 2013-09-02.
  6. ↑ "NEWS TRANSLINK - NORTHERN IRELAND RAILWAYS". IRRS. February 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.

Bibliography

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