This year sees the fiftieth anniversary of the first government sanctioned closure of a railway in Northern Ireland. On 15th January 1950 all Belfast and County Down Railway services south of Comber would cease, followed on the 22nd April 1950 with the withdrawal of services on the Belfast-Donaghadee line.

In 1948 the Northern Ireland Government made clear its intention to amalgamate the LMS(NCC) and the BCDR with the Province's bus operator the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board into the new Ulster Transport Authority, which would be state owned. Soon after the UTA's inception the NI Government established the Ulster Transport Tribunal to examine how an integrated transported service might be achieved. Railway chiefs hoped the tribunal would recommend that the bus services should no longer compete with the railways, but instead act as 'feeder' services from the countryside to the major stations. Instead the tribunal recommended that the entire BCDR main line from Belfast to Newcastle, including the branches to Donaghadee, Ballynahinch and Ardglass should close, and all operations transferred to buses. The only exception from the closure would be the Bangor branch. This recommendation came as a complete shock to many people, particularly as the BCDR was still turning over a profit and especially the inclusion of the Belfast-Comber section of the line. This section of the line served East Belfast, Dundonald, Comber and Newtownards, areas that were already starting to expand in size which would virtually guarantee commuter traffic. Observers of the time correctly predicted that the closure would cause severe traffic problems in these areas in the future. Ten years later the GNR(I) would be divided between the UTA and its counterpart in the Republic, Coras Iompair Eireann (Irish Transport Board).

The 1950 closures were the first steps taken by the Northern Ireland Government in decreasing the size of Northern Ireland's railway network from 754 miles to 297 miles, a reduction of 61%. The closures only stopped because of widespread public outcry, leading to the break up of the UTA into Northern Ireland Railways and Ulsterbus. It should also be pointed out that the start of the railway closures in Northern Ireland began a good thirteen years before Westminster followed suite with Dr. Beeching's infamous report into the restructuring of British Railways across the water in Great Britain.

For more information on the history of the BCDR, please refer to the History section.

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