Coras Iompair Éireann : Passenger Train Timetable - Northern Section : Summer 1959 : CIÉ : Dublin 1959 : Principal express services Dublin - Belfast

            Some sample pages from the thin timetable booklet issued by Coras Iompair Éireann - CIÉ - the Irish state transport undertaking for the train services north from Amiens Street station (known as Connolly station since 1966) in Dublin for the period 1 June until 4 October 1959. These lines were really only a recent responsibility for CIÉ as for decades they had been operated by the Great Northern Railway of Ireland GNR(I). 

The GNR(I) had become a cross-border railway following partition in 1921 and this complicated an already increasingly difficult financial situation; like many railways the GNR(I) suffered from motor transport competition for both passengers and freight. The GNR(I) did run motor bus services such as various feeder routes in the north of the Dublin suburban area. In 1953 the company was jointly nationalised by the Governments of Northern Ireland and the Republic and run as a Joint Board. However in 1958 with the increasingly anti-rail Northern Goverment keen to close branch lines, the GNR(I) was formally split between the two countries; lines and assets north going to the Ulster Transport Board and in the south to CIÉ. 

The UTA wasted no time in a mass closure of ex-GNR(I) lines until basically the rump of the main Dublin - Belfast and Derry/Londonderry main lines. In the south the border division somewhat frustrated any intention CIÉ may have had of continuing secondary routes and besides the great cull of rural lines south of the border was itself underway. 

So, this 1959 timetable is an early iteration of CIÉ own show. As well as the mainline "Enterprise" express trains between Dublin and Belfast (the name was introduced in 1947 by the GNR(I)) the vestigal rail services to Derry/Londonderry are shown. Connections to town buses, now operated by CIÉ, are shown and these include the first days of the replacement bus service for the famous Hill of Howth Tramway that CIÉ had taken over from the GNR(I) and that had sadly shut on 31 May 1959; I've often thought how this would have now been an remarkable tourist attraction had it survived.

Other connections include those to the railway services of the remarkable Co. Donegal Railways that would later that year be replaced by the Joint Committee's own buses. The connections to the now bus only Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway that had ceased train operation in 1953; the company survived as a bus operator until 2014 and well I recall them!

Taken on: November 20, 2024

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Mike Ashworth Collection

transport

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railway timetables

bus

bus timetables

CIÉ

Coras Iompair Éireann

1959

Summer 1959

CIÉ Northern Section passenger train timetable Summer 1959

1 June 1959

Dublin

Amiens Street station

Howth

Drogheda

Dundalk

Portadown

Strabane

Derry

Londonderry

UTA

Ulster Transport Authority

Belfast

Éire

Ireland

Northern Ireland

Co. Donegal Railways

Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway

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Railway publicity

Enterprise Express train service « less

Sets appears in: • CIÉ : Northern Section - Passenger train timetable : 1959 • Ireland - both North & South more » • CIÉ - Córas Iompair Eireann • Railway publicity « less

Groups appears in: • Transport Timetables Leaflet and Ticket SCANS. • Transport in Ireland more » • Bus/Rail Ireland Republic Coras Iompair Eireann « less

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