Knockmore railway station

Knockmore

Class 3000 train passing the remains of Knockmore station in 2010
Location
Place Lisburn
Area County Antrim
Operations
Original company Great Northern Railway of Ireland
Post-grouping Northern Ireland Railways
Platforms 2
(one on Belfast-Newry down line, one on Lisburn-Antrim bi-directional single line.)
History
1839 line opened
1932 station opened
25 March 2005 station closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain
A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z
UK Railways portal

Knockmore railway station (Irish: Cnoc Mór) was a station on the Belfast–Newry railway line. The station served the suburb of Knockmore in Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Great Northern Railway (GNR) opened Knockmore station as a halt in 1932.[1] Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) closed the station on March 25, 2005.

Knockmore station had two platforms. One platform was served by "down" trains only on the service from Belfast Central via Lisburn to Portadown, while the other platform was served by trains in both directions on the Belfast – Lisburn – Antrim – Derry service. "Up" trains travelling from Portadown to Belfast could not serve Knockmore as it was the middle line with no platform.

History

The station is near Knockmore Junction, which was came into service in 1863 for the Banbridge, Lisburn and Belfast Junction Railway (BLB) to connect with the Ulster Railway.[1] The junction gained another branch in 1871 when the Dublin and Antrim Junction Railway (D&A, now the Lisburn–Antrim railway line) was opened.[1] The Ulster Railway, BLB and D&A all became part of the GNR by the end of the 1870s.[2] The GNR was nationalised in 1953 as the GNR Board,[3] which closed Banbridge branch on 29 April 1956.[4]

In 2003 NIR reopened the more direct Belfast – Antrim route via Whiteabbey and withdrew passenger services from the Lisburn – Antrim line. This left Knockmore station with a train service in only one direction: "down" trains from Belfast to Portadown. Unsurprisingly this arrangement was not well-used so on 25 March 2005 NIR closed Knockmore station. The "up" platform still remains. NIR have included in their corporate plans for a new Knockmore park and ride station further down the line called Lisburn West. The station would serve both trains from Bangor-Newry via Belfast Central, Lisburn and Portadown and trains from Newry-Bangor via Portadown, Lisburn and Belfast Central.

Preceding station NI Railways Northern Ireland Railways Following station
Lisburn   Northern Ireland Railways
Belfast-Derry via Lisburn-Antrim line
  Ballinderry
  Northern Ireland Railways
Belfast-Newry (Outbound only)
  Moira

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hajducki, 1974, map 9
  2. Hajducki 1974, p. xiii.
  3. Baker 1972, pp. 146, 147.
  4. Baker 1972, p. 207.

Sources

Coordinates: 54°30′41″N 6°04′05″W / 54.51139°N 6.06806°W