Cultra railway station

Cultra
Cultra railway station
General information
Location	Cultra (Holywood) Northern Ireland
Coordinates	54.6523°N 5.8050°W / 54.6523; -5.8050
Owned by	NI Railways
Operated by	NI Railways
Line(s)	Bangor
Platforms	2
Tracks	2
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
Key dates
May 1865	Opened
11 November 1957	Closed
1978	Re-opened
2008	Refurbished
Passengers
2022/23	60,665
2023/24	73,667
NI Railways Translink NI railway stations
Route map (Click to expand) Year closed Great Victoria Street 2024 Belfast Grand Central Belfast-Dublin line to Portadown, Newry, Dublin Connolly City Hospital Botanic Tunnel Botanic Lanyon Place Lagan Railway Bridge over River Lagan Belfast-Larne railway line & Belfast-Derry railway line Titanic Quarter (Bridge End) Queen's Quay 1976 Belfast and County Down Railway to Comber, Ardglass, Newcastle 1950 Ballymacarrett 1976 Victoria Park 1981 Sydenham Tillysburn 1945 Kinnegar 1957 Holywood Marino Cultra Craigavad 1957 Seahill Helen's Bay Crawfordsburn 1997 Carnalea Bangor West Bangor
Location Cultra Location within Northern Ireland Cultra Location on the Island of Ireland

Cultra railway station is a railway station in the townland of Ballycultra in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland. It serves the Cultra residential area and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

History

The Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament on 12 June 1861 and opened in May 1865. The BH&BR crossed the land of some wealthy landowners, whose terms included that Cultra station must be "of an ornamental character" and that "at least One Half of the Trains" must call there, or else the company would be penalised £10 per day.

The BH&BR was originally single track and the only passing loop was at Craigavad, so Cultra station would have had only one platform. However, the Belfast and County Down Railway took over the BH&BR in 1884 and doubled the track between 1897 and 1902, from which time Cultra has had two platforms. In deference to Cultra's wealthy residents the footbridge between the platforms had a roof, the only bridge so equipped on the B&CDR network.

Cultra station features in the documentary film A Letter from Ulster (1942); the narrator incorrectly describes the station as Coleraine.

Due to low passenger numbers, the Ulster Transport Authority closed the station on 11 November 1957. However, subsequently the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum was established at Cultra. Northern Ireland Railways reopened the station in 1978, primarily to serve the museum.

Service

Mondays to Saturdays there is a half-hourly service westbound to Belfast Grand Central in one direction, and eastbound to Bangor in the other. More frequent trains run at peak times, and the service reduces to hourly in the evenings.

Some peak-hour trains pass through Cultra station without stopping.

On Sundays there is an hourly service in each direction.

Sources

• Patterson, E.M. (1982) [1958]. Belfast and County Down Railway. Newton Abbott: David & Charles. pp. 8, 41. ISBN 071538306X.

External links

• Media related to Cultra railway station at Wikimedia Commons