Portrush is a seaside resort town on the northern coast of the island of Ireland. Best known for its white, sandy beaches and not much else, it is (as I like to say) Northern Ireland’s premier beach town.

The town benefits from a rail connection to Belfast and to Derry/Londonderry via Coleraine, making it very easy to access for day-trippers. I dropped by Portrush for a visit in the summer of 2024 and, having gotten there on the Ulsterbus 402, decided to catch a Northern Ireland Railways service back to Belfast.

Buying my tickets

NI Railways sells a variety of tickets for its services. Generally speaking, you can buy a Single ticket or a Day Return ticket for travel between your origin and destination stations. There are also discounted tickets available, such as a discounted off-peak Day Return ticket for travel after 9:30am. You can buy these tickets at the station with cash or card, or on Translink’s mLink app (if you can get it to work for you).

Another way to travel on Translink services is to use a zone-based iLink travel card. Depending on your choice, these can be good for a day, a week, or a month, and covers all bus and rail services within a particular zone, a combo of zones or all of Northern Ireland. For this trip, I used my 1 Week Zone 4 iLink travel card, which meant I did not have to buy tickets every time I hopped on all Translink buses and trains.

For more information on the iLink travel cards, head on over here.

Departure from Portrush train station

The Portrush railway station is located on Eglinton Street, right by the small town centre and within walking distance of the town’s famed beaches. The station is very new (more on that below), and is built in a modern architecture that allows abundant natural light into the interior.

If you have some time, walk further down the street from the station to see the mock-Tudor style historic station building that opened in 1855.

At the time of my visit, Translink was in the midst of upgrading the NI Railways ticketing system. The station had new electronic ticket vending machines installed, but had not yet received the new ticket barriers that were already in place at Belfast’s new York Street station at the time.

Trains from Portrush to Belfast run a scheduled service consisting of both Portrush – Belfast direct trains and Portrush – Coleraine shuttle trains. Typically there are more Portrush – Coleraine Shuttle on weekdays and Saturdays, while Sundays see more direct trains to Belfast. If you catch the shuttle train to Coleraine, you’ll have to transfer to the trains coming from Derry for onward travel to Belfast. On this trip, I caught a direct train back to Belfast.

Portrush in 2017

This visit wasn’t my first time in Portrush, as I last visited the town in the summer of 2017. I had initially planned to feature the train ride on the previous iteration of this blog back then, but life intervened and I never got round to typing the opening sentence of that draft. That’s right, this is one of my most overdue posts ever.

Portrush in 2017 wasn’t very different from the Portrush of 2024, with one big exception: Portrush’s brand new train station that opened in July 2019. I cover it more extensively in this post, but essentially the new station is a big upgrade over the old one.

One small part about the Portrush branch line that hasn’t changed is its semaphore signalling. Stand at the end of the platform and watch the physical signals change as trains come and go!

Onboard the NI Railways Class 4000 DMU

This service was operated by a 6 car Class 4000 Diesel Multiple Unit consisting of 2 separate 3-car units running as a coupled pair. The 20-strong CAF-built Class 4000 fleet was first commissioned into service in 2010, supplementing the existing fleet of 23 Class 3000 DMUs from year 2004-2005.

All Class 3000 and Class 4000 DMUs share identical interiors. The seats are laid out in a standard 2-2 airline style configuration. The seats in each carriage consist of 2 groups facing towards the middle of the carriage, meaning half of the seats are facing backwards.

NI Railways’ seats are generally quite comfortable and are perfect for a nap after a day out in the countryside. There are also small seat-back tables, USB chargers, accessible toilets, and a dedicated space for wheelchair users. Do note that seats are on a first come first serve basis as NI Railways do not provide seat reservations.

Arrival at Belfast Lanyon Place

The entire journey from Portrush to Belfast Lanyon Place took almost 1 hour and 30 minutes. At the time of the trip, Lanyon Place was serving as Belfast’s central station due to construction works for the new Belfast Grand Central.

Since October 2024, all NI Railways services terminate at Grand Central, taking the total journey time to around 1 hour and 50 minutes. Do expect the journey to take slightly longer if transferring to the Derry – Belfast train at Coleraine.

Final Thoughts

I’ve never really had issues with NI Railways services, and it was great to see that NI Railways were still running quality service consistently. As always, I can recommend travelling Northern Ireland by rail.