Lisburn railway station serves the city of Lisburn in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

History

The station was opened on 12 August 1839 by the Ulster Railway. The station buildings were rebuilt in 1878 to designed by William Henry Mills, for the then newly formed Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNRI). On Wednesday 20 December 1978, there was a fatal collision between two trains. The fire brigade attended and cut out the person killed from the wreckage. Several other people were treated for minor injuries and shock.

Northern Ireland Digital Film Archive

The Northern Ireland Digital Film Archive holds a black and white film clip. It was made in 1897 and was filmed from a moving train going through Lisburn Railway Station from Belfast to Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire), Dublin. The station's name can be seen and in addition, the view includes the platform, train carriages, station buildings and large houses along the length of North Circular Road, Lisburn.

Current building

It has been renovated, with a new waiting area on platform 1, new toilets and vending machines. In addition, on platforms 2 and 3, a coffee shop operates on weekday mornings, to accommodate commuters travelling towards Belfast Grand Central. To make the station more accessible, lifts have been installed on each platform.

Station House

There is a station house built in Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNR) style. It is now in private ownership.

Services

Train Services

Mondays to Saturdays, there is a half-hourly service towards or in one direction, and to Grand Central in the other. Extra services run at peak times, some as expresses to Grand Central, and the service reduces to hourly operation in the evenings. On Sundays, there is an hourly NIR service in each direction. Two Enterprise services call at the station on Sundays only - the 0818 to, and the 2256 to Grand Central.

Bus Services

Buses depart from the road outside the station entrance. This stop is served by Ulsterbus, which provides routes to locations such as Belfast, Lisburn City Centre, and Derriaghy.

Former services

Until 2003, Lisburn was also a stop on the Belfast-Derry railway line. However, in 2001, the Bleach Green route (via Mossley and Templepatrick) was re-opened, after being closed in 1978. This provided a faster route for DerryLondonderry Line trains than the Lisburn-Antrim line. A skeleton service was operated on this line until 2003 when passenger services were withdrawn. The other reason the line was cut was because of the congestion on the route, which caused considerable problems with the Enterprise Service for over 20 years. The line itself is still maintained for rolling stock transfers and emergency diversions. Passengers now wishing to travel to destinations on the DerryLondonderry Line can no longer travel directly from Lisburn station and must travel to Grand Central to change trains.

Former lines

The 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 being linked, which in the 1950s and 1960s was closed west of Portadown.