NI Railways

NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways, is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent company is the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, and is one of ten publicly owned train operators in the United Kingdom, the others being Direct Rail Services, Caledonian Sleeper, Northern Trains, Transport for Wales Rail, Southeastern, LNER, ScotRail, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express. It has a common Board of Management with the other two companies in the group, Ulsterbus and Metro.
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 Republic 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. Since the Single European Railway Directive 2012, the company has allowed open access operations by other rail operators, although no operator has started such a service. In 2019, NI Railways carried over 15 million passengers.
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; proposals have been made, but allowances would have to be made for the different rail gauge in use in Britain and Ireland.

History

From the early 20th century until 1948, the three main railway companies in Northern Ireland were the Great Northern Railway Ireland, which had around one half of its network north of the border; the Northern Counties Committee, owned by the Midland Railway of England and later the London, Midland and Scottish Railway ; and the small Belfast and County Down Railway. The Transport Act 1948 created the Ulster Transport Authority, which took over the BCDR later that year, followed by the NCC in 1949 as a result of the Ireland Act 1949. In 1958, the GNRI was dissolved and its lines north of the border were also taken over by the UTA. Under the UTA's management, the railway network of Northern Ireland shrank from 900 miles to 225 miles. The UTA was split into rail and road operations in 1967, and the rail operations were taken over by the present company Northern Ireland Railways.
Suffering frequent disruption and damage to infrastructure caused by the Troubles and starved of investment by successive political administrations, the NIR network had become badly run down by the 1960s, with old rolling stock and poorly maintained track. NIR's last steam locomotives were withdrawn in 1970.
In 1970, NIR re-launched the once-popular Enterprise between Dublin and Belfast with three new NIR Class 101 diesel locomotives built by Hunslet in England and Mark 2B carriages built by British Rail Engineering Limited. Despite frequent interruptions due to bomb scares, the service has remained a more or less constant feature of the NIR network.
As older trains became obsolete in the 1970s, the Class 80 slam-door diesel-electric multiple unit was introduced. BREL built these units between 1974 and 1977 to British Rail's Mark 2 design with some trailer cars rebuilt from hauled stock. The power cars were powered by an English Electric 4SRKT engine, nicknamed 'Thumpers' due to their characteristic sound, and had two English Electric 538 traction motors. These entered service on the suburban lines around Belfast, becoming a stalwart on the whole network. They remained in service until 2012, latterly primarily on the Larne-Belfast line and the Coleraine-Portrush Line. In the early 1980s, NIR purchased one of the prototype LEV Railbuses built to test the railbus concept. This was intended for the Coleraine-Portrush branch, but was withdrawn due to the capacity constraints of a single car. A plan was mooted to use it on the Lisburn-Antrim line to prevent it from being closed. This proposal failed, again because of the limited capacity.
NIR has three EMD class 111 locomotives, 111–113, for freight and passenger use, built in October 1980 and December 1984. During the eighties it was apparent that additional trains would be needed. BREL built nine 450 Class sets on former Mark 1 underframes between 1985 and 1987. The power cars had an English Electric 4SRKT engine recovered from former 70 Class units and had two English Electric 538 traction motors. The sets were three-car diesel-electric multiple units, based on a more modern British design, with air-operated sliding doors. They were withdrawn from service in 2012 and replaced by new 4000 Class diesel multiple units. In 1994, NIR bought two EMD 208 Class locomotives identical to Iarnród Éireann's 201 Class. These haul the cross-border Enterprise dedicated trains of modern carriages.
Since 2002, NIR has modernised its rolling stock, with a full fleet replacement of new trains built by the Spanish company CAF. 23 Class 3000 diesel multiple units made up the first batch of trains ordered at a cost of £80million. They offered greater capacity, performance and accessibility than their predecessors when they were delivered in 2004 and 2005. The next order was for 20 Class 4000s, built 2010–2012. These offered similar benefits to the Class 3000s and completed the fleet replacement. Additionally, NIR has purchased 23 new carriages, via an option in the existing Class 4000 train procurement contract, these are to be used to extend Seven trains from three cars to six cars, which will add much more capacity and will also allow only one guard to be needed on a six-car train, which required two before.
In 2021, Translink announced it would change all of its iconic logos to a new design. The design was intended to focus to "modernise and simplify the brand presence". The creation of the logo cost £15,000 and was created by Belfast-based company McCadden Design in partnership with Translink.

Performance

Translink's performance statistics for the 26 weeks up to 30 March 2025 noted an average punctuality for rail services of 96.2 %, with the Portadown/Newry Line showing the greatest average punctuality at 97.8 %, and the Portrush Line the least at 94.2 %. Among other accolades, NIR won the UK Rail Business of the Year Award for 2008.
NIR carried 13.4million passengers in 2014–15, representing 417million passenger-km and earning £43.6million in ticket sales.
In 20182019, NIR recorded 15.8million passenger journeys, the largest in the company's 50-year history.

Rolling stock

Current fleet

NIR also owns half of the 28 De Dietrich stock coaches used by Enterprise, the international service between Belfast and Dublin. These units have their own unique livery, and do not operate under NIR branding or on any other services in Northern Ireland or the Republic. In 2005, NIR investigated obtaining seven Class 222 DEMUs built for British operator Midland Mainline to use for Enterprise, but these entered service with their intended operator. They would have required significant modification to enable NIR to use them, including conversion from standard gauge to Irish gauge.
NIR retained one Class 80 unit as its sandite train during the 2012-2017 leaf fall seasons. It was planned that a Class 450 unit was to be used for this role. However, in 2015, Translink awarded a contract to Windhoff Bahn AG to procure a new double ended multi-purpose vehicle to undertake sandite and high-pressure water spraying, as well as weed killing operations.

"New Trains" fleet replacement

In 2004/2005, NIR received 23 Class 3000 diesel multiple units from CAF of Spain in an £80million order. The final unit, 3023, arrived in Belfast Harbour on Monday 18 July 2005. All units had entered service by 24 September 2005. A maintenance contract with CAF for these vehicles was extended in May 2020 for another 15 years.
In 2007, NIR announced plans to purchase up to 20 trains under its "New Trains 2010" proposal following the confirmation of its expected budget. This fleet replaced the remaining Class 80 and Class 450 trains by March 2012. Renamed as "New Trains Two", this project went out to tender in late 2007. In March 2009 it was announced that CAF had been selected to build the new fleet, named Class 4000. The first units were delivered in March 2011, with entry into service in September 2011
In December 2018, NIR, announced that 21 additional carriages would be purchased from CAF at the cost of £50million, via an option in the existing Class 4000 train procurement contract. The first of the new carriages arrived in Belfast in March 2021, they were integrated onto Unit 4017 and tested throughout the summer, until being put into service on 29 September 2021.

Past fleet

Class	Image	Type	Built	Withdrawn	Notes
Class Z		Steam locomotive	1949	1969	Ex-SLNCR Lough class. No. 49 Lough Erne preserved at the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland.
Class WT		Steam locomotive	19461950	19691971	2-6-4 tank engines nicknamed "Jeeps" due to their general purpose traffic ability. Used for Spoil trains from Magheramorne to shores of Belfast Lough as well as shunting, passenger and freight. Arguably the last steam locomotives in mainline operation in Ireland and the British Isles. No. 4 preserved at the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland.
Class 1		Diesel locomotive	1969	1989	Shunters. Since withdrawal two have been rebuilt for work in Sri Lanka; one is in storage in Wales.
101 Class		Diesel locomotive	1970	2002	Intended for loco hauled Enterprise services. One preserved at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museums
104 Class		Diesel locomotive	19561957	1997	Originally operated under CIÉ; six transferred to NIR in 1986. All scrapped.
AEC		Diesel multiple unit		1972	10 Inherited from the UTA. All scrapped.
BUT		Diesel multiple unit	19561958	19751980	Nine vehicles converted to hauled stock over the 1970s, these lasted until 1980. All scrapped.
MED		Diesel multiple unit			Intended for local services around Belfast. All scrapped.
MPD		Diesel multiple unit	19571962	19811984	Intended for longer distance former NCC routes and Enterprise. All scrapped.
70 Class		Diesel multiple unit	19661968	19851986	Passenger DEMU. Engines recovered for use in 450 Class units. One intermediate is preserved at the Downpatrick and County Down Railway. One driving trailer was also preserved, but was destroyed.
80 Class		Diesel multiple unit	19741979	20112017	Passenger DEMU affectionately nicknamed 'Thumpers'. Operated on all routes. Also used for Sandite until 2017. Four cars preserved at the Downpatrick and County Down Railway and one at the East Lancashire Railway.
450 Class		Diesel multiple unit	19851987	20112012	Passenger DEMU nicknamed the Castle Class by enthusiasts. Power cars named after Northern Ireland castles. Initially designed for commuter or branch line traffic but could be found over the entire network. One example is preserved on the Downpatrick and County Down Railway.
RB3		Diesel railcar	1980	1990	Prototype built for British Rail; transferred to NIR in 1983. Preserved at the Gwendraeth Valley Railway.
Mark 2 'Gatwicks'		Passenger Carriage	1973	2009	Bought from Gatwick Express in 2001 and later used on the Belfast-Portadown route once a day until 2009.