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 NI Railways network today having been opened on 18 November 1841.[4] The old, now redundant, signal box stands over the station on the Southbound side.
Moira  | |||||||
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| General information | |||||||
| Location | Moira, County Down. (Station in County Antrim) Northern Ireland | ||||||
| Coordinates | 54°29′31″N 6°12′54″W / 54.492°N 6.215°W | ||||||
| Owned by | NI Railways | ||||||
| Operated by | NI Railways | ||||||
| Line(s) | Portadown/Newry | ||||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||||
| Tracks | 2 | ||||||
| Construction | |||||||
| Structure type | At-grade | ||||||
| Other information | |||||||
| Station code | MOIRA[1] | ||||||
| Passengers | |||||||
| 2022/23 | 254,953 [2] | ||||||
| 2023/24 |  330,930 [3] | ||||||
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Situated near the M1 motorway, the station is popular amongst commuters from the surrounding area, with over 330,000 passengers boarding or alighting at the station in the 2023/24 financial year.[3]
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
editThere 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.
Lines in the Past
editThe 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
editThe station is now part of NIR's Newry-Bangor service. The station is also passed through by the Enterprise intercity service from Belfast Grand Central to Dublin Connolly on the Belfast-Dublin railway line.
Service
editMondays to Saturdays there is a half-hourly service towards Portadown in one direction, with some trains continuing on to Newry; and to Belfast Grand Central in the other direction.
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.
Future Link to Armagh City
editThere is a possible future railway reopening from Portadown railway station to Armagh.
References
edit- ^ "Irish Rail Realtime API". api.irishrail.ie. Irish Rail. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- ^ "FOI1317 NIR Footfall 2223.xlsx". www.whatdotheyknow.com. 17 April 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
- ^ a b "FOI Footfall 2023 2024 figures PDF.pdf". www.whatdotheyknow.com. 7 May 2024. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
- ^ http://www.ni-environment.gov.uk/moirastationeng.pdf[permanent dead link]
