page_title: NI Railways
section_title: Portadown to Armagh
hierarchical_section_title: NI Railways / Future / Infrastructure / Portadown to Armagh
caption_attribution_description: English: Remains of an old Railway Bridge, Ballybrannon Road, Armagh This railway bridge carried the former railway line from Portadown to Armagh. The line is also proposed to be reopened.
context_page_description: NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways and for a brief period Ulster Transport 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 Four publicly owned train operators in the United Kingdom, the others being Direct Rail Services, Northern Trains and LNER. 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 rest 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. However, since the Single European Railway Directive 2012, the company has allowed open access operations by other rail operators. In 2017, NI Railways carried 15 million passengers.
context_section_description: In 2013, the then Minister for Regional Development, Danny Kennedy, indicated that a restoration of the route between Portadown and Armagh was under active consideration in the long term, pointing out the commercial opportunities for the city of Armagh and its hinterland to be reconnected to the railway network.
caption: Remains of an old railway bridge, Ballybrannon Road, Armagh awaiting reconstruction.
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "230", "Image YResolution": "230", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Version 1.0100", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "340", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4980", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3326", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1577/250000", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:10:10 13:00:49", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:10:10 13:00:49", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "16/5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "73/10", "EXIF ApertureValue": "433/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "433/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "88", "EXIF FocalLength": "59/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2304", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1728", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "4948", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal"}