The Newry and Armagh Railway (N&A) opened in 1864, and had its own temporary terminus just outside Armagh until it started using the Ulster Railway station in 1865.[1]
The Armagh rail disaster, which killed 80 people and injured 260, occurred on 12 June 1889 on the N&A line near Armagh.[4] An excursion train had to climb a steep gradient, but the locomotive stalled. The crew decided to divide the train but, when they did so, the rear portion had inadequate brake power and ran back down the gradient, colliding with a following train. Most of the eighty people killed were women. It was previously thought that more children were killed, but most children were saved by jumping out of windows.
Decline and closure
The partition of Ireland in 1922 hastened the railways' decline, and the GNR closed the Keady – Castleblayney section of the CKA in 1923.[5] The GNR withdrew passenger trains from the Armagh – Keady section of the CKA in 1932 and closed the Armagh – Markethill section of the N&A in 1933.[5] The Government of Northern Ireland made the GNR Board close the remaining lines serving Armagh on Monday 1 October 1957: the goods branch from Armagh to Keady and the main line through Armagh from Portadown as far as the border at Glaslough on the way to Monaghan.[5][6]
As of 2013, it was reported that a future reopened railway line to Portadown was under consideration.[7] The then minister for Northern Ireland's Department for Regional Development, Danny Kennedy, indicated possible railway restoration plans.[8] In proposals, published in 2014, the Armagh Line was also included in a list of potential projects.[9]
The All-Island Strategic Rail Review published in 2023 recommended the reinstatement of services to the station as part of a line between Mullingar and Portadown.[10]
