Yorkgate railway station

Infobox NI station
name = Yorkgate


locale = York Road, Belfast
borough = Belfast City Council
years = 1992
events = Opened
platforms = 2
usage0405 =

Yorkgate railway station serves the north of the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The station opened in 1992, replacing the previous York Road station nearby.

History

York Road was formerly one of the three main railway stations in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The others were Great Victoria Street, and Queen's Quay.

York Road station was opened on 11 April 1848 [cite web | title=York Road station | work=Railscot - Irish Railways | url=http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf | accessdate=2007-08-30] by the Belfast & Ballymena Railway (BBR). Originally, it acted as terminus for rail services between Belfast and Ballymena. Later this was extended to Derry by the Belfast & Londonderry Railway via a route to Coleraine (opened in 1855 by the Belfast, Ballymena, Coleraine & Portrush Junction Railway). A branch was also opened to Carrickfergus (1848, BBR) and Larne (1862, Carrickfergus & Larne Railway).

The company became known as the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway. It was taken over by the Midland Railway in 1903, becoming the "Midland Railway, Northern Counties Committee". After the Grouping of 1923, it became the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, Northern Counties Committee. Following a very brief period, from 1 January 1948, in the ownership of the British Government's British Transport Commission, as the "Railway Executive, Northern Counties Committee", the Ulster Transport Authority took over the "NCC" on 1 April 1949 and, during the 1950s, set about closing much of the network.

The station and adjacent works were very badly damaged in an air raid, in April 1941. The Midland Hotel, on the Whitla Street side of the complex, was destroyed, along with its neighbour, the covered tram terminus, as were the two large, glass, over-all roofs, with semi-circular profiles, which covered the platforms at the concourse end. The damage was so severe that, in 1944, town planners proposed, in the first Area Plan for Belfast, that the station should be moved, several blocks to the south, but this proposal was never implemented.

Although the hotel was re-built (in much simplified form) and the station was "re-vamped" on two occasions (notably in 1966), it never regained its pre-war grandeur. A terrorist attack, in the early days of the troubles, damaged it further. In 1968, the successor of the Ulster Transport Authority, Northern Ireland Railways drew up ambitious plans for a brand-new station and office block at York Road, in a style similar to that, employed for London's Euston, which was remodelled, between 1963 and 1968. These plans, copies of which were uncovered, in 1999, by the Irish Railway Record Society, were soon shelved. Instead, what remained of the old station was demolished and a small, brown-brick structure built. This was opened in 1975, with the main entrance in York Road itself, at what had been the side of the old station. Parts of the site were sold, at that time, and commercial premises constructed. Services to Derry (also known as Londonderry) and intermediate locations continued to run until 1978, when the Belfast terminus was transferred to Belfast Central (Central Station), which had been opened two years previously. As the cross-harbour bridge had not been built (it was promised by the Labour Government, in 1978, but cancelled when Margaret Thatcher came to power), Derry services were run via a new spur, which allowed trains to access the former Antrim branch of the Great Northern Railway of Ireland directly from Lisburn station.

Apart from special excursions (and a short resumption of York Road-Antrim stopping services in 1980), between 1978 and 1992, the station was a fairly quiet terminus for services on the Larne branch. A new, two-platform station, beside the original site was then opened and named Yorkgate. This served a new rail route, which (since opening, early in 1995) has linked the Larne branch to Belfast Central by means of a new high-level bridge, the Dargan Bridge, which is right beside a motorway bridge, officially named "The Lagan Bridge". The elevated line, carried on concrete viaducts, follows an "S" plan, with the junction for Belfast Central [Lagan Junction] , just to the east of the Lagan Viaduct. Thus, trains from Larne can now run straight into Belfast Central.

Until June 1963, it had been possible to transfer rail vehicles, of limited height and short length, between the former Great Northern Railway of Ireland network at Queen's Bridge (Goods) Station (Oxford Street Bus Station from 1960), via the Belfast Harbour Commissioners' lines, from Whitla Street yard, along Prince's Dock Street, across the Clarendon Dock on a swing bridge, along the Albert Quay and Donegall Quay and under the western end of the Queen's Bridge in a tunnel, opened in the 1880s. The railway tunnel, known as the Queen's Bridge Subway, was closed, as work began on the "Lagan Bridge" [named The Queen Elizabeth Bridge, upon its completion in 1966] . It was converted into a pedestrian subway but this was closed in 2002 and subsequently demolished, although some cables were laid along the remnants.

For a short time in the 1930s, some passenger services were run by the LMS (NCC), between York Road and Donegall Quay, from where LMS steamers operated to Heysham. However, because of the extremely short radii of the curves on the Harbour Commissioners' lines, the coaches had to be specially adapted for this purpose. Wooden steps were provided, to allow passengers to climb into the carriages, from the paved area, outside Donegall Quay's transit sheds.

The site of York Road station is now occupied by the modern Central Maintenance Depot of Northern Ireland Railways, while the (cramped) old works remain, a few yards to the north and backing on to York Road itself.

###@@@KEYEND@@@###

References