Northern Ireland Railways
 |
|
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1503708.jpg) |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Franchise(s) | Government-owned subsidiary Not subject to franchising |
| Main Region(s) | Northern Ireland |
| Fleet size | 48 |
| Stations called at | 54 |
| National Rail abbreviation | Not part of National Rail |
| Parent company | NITHCo (Translink) |
| Website | www.translink.co.uk/NI-Railways/ |
| Technical | |
| Gauge | 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) |
NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent company is the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), and is one of two publicly owned train operators in the United Kingdom, the other being Direct Rail Services. It has a common Board of Management with the other two companies in the group, Ulsterbus and Metro (formerly Citybus). The rail network in Northern Ireland is not part of the National Rail network of Great Britain, nor does it use Standard Gauge; instead using Irish Gauge in common with the rest of the island of Ireland. Also, NIR is the only commercial non-heritage passenger operator in the United Kingdom to operate a vertical integration model, with responsibility of all aspects of the network including running trains, maintaining rolling stock and infrastructure, and pricing.
NIR jointly runs the Enterprise train service between Belfast and Dublin with Iarnród Éireann. There is no link to the rail system in Great Britain, although proposals have been made, though allowances would have to be made for the different rail gauge (standard gauge) in use in Britain and the rest of Europe.
NIR was formed in 1968 when it took over from the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA), which had operated the province's railways since 1948. Much of the network closed during the 1950s and 1960s, declining from 900 miles (1,500 km) to 206.61 miles (330.58 km) at present.
...
Wikipedia