Great Northern Railway (Ireland) - Nationalisation and Division

Nationalisation and Division

A combination of the increasing road competition facing all railways and a change in patterns of economic activity caused by the partition of Ireland reduced the GNRI's prosperity. The company modernised and reduced its costs by introducing modern diesel multiple units on an increasing number of services in the 1940s and 1950s and by making Dublin–Belfast expresses non-stop from 1948. Nevertheless by the 1950s the GNRI had ceased to be profitable and in 1953 the company was jointly nationalised by the governments of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The two governments ran the railway jointly under a Great Northern Railway Board until 1958.

In May 1958 the Government of Northern Ireland's wish to close many lines led to the GNRI Board being dissolved and the assets divided between the two states. All lines in Northern Ireland were transferred to the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) and all lines in the Republic of Ireland were transferred to Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ). In an attempt at fairness, all classes of locomotive and rolling stock were also divided equally between the transport operators of the two states. Most classes of GNRI locomotive had been built in small classes, so this division left both railways with an operational and maintenance difficulty of many different designs all in small numbers.

The Northern Ireland Government rapidly closed all GNRI lines in Northern Ireland except the Belfast–Dundalk and Portadown–Derry main lines and the Newry–Warrenpoint and Lisburn–Antrim branches. It made the Lisburn–Antrim branch freight-only from 1960 and closed the Portadown–Derry and Newry–Warrenpoint lines to all traffic in 1965. The Republic of Ireland government tried briefly to maintain services on lines closed at the border by the Northern Ireland government, but this was impractical, and the Republic had to follow suit in closing most GNRI lines south of the border. Since 1960 the Drogheda–Navan branch has survived for freight traffic only.

CIÉ also acquired the Hill of Howth Tramway, in the northern suburbs of Dublin, in the 1958 dissolution of the GNRI Board. CIÉ closed the tramway about a year later.