The station was opened on 1 October 1862 by the
Portpatrick Railway; however, the current station buildings date from 1877 under the Portpatrick Railways Act 1877. The original facility was a concrete platform. Passengers and mail were meant to use the station at
Portpatrick. The Portpatrick ferry service was never successful as, despite its apparently attractive location and significant initial investment, the harbour there was unsuitable as it was too small and insufficiently sheltered. A ferry service had commenced by 1861 but passengers made their way from
Stranraer Town station to the
steamers, not Stranraer Harbour station. The first daily ferry service started on 1 October 1862 to Larne and was provided by . However, it only lasted until 31 December 1863. Originally named
Stranraer Harbour, The
Stena Line ferry service to
Larne was moved to
Belfast on 12 November 1995.
P&O Ferries still sails there from nearby
Cairnryan. Stena stopped serving Stranraer on 21 November 2011, having invested £200 million on a new route to Loch Ryan Port, near Cairnryan. ScotRail has cut services to Stranraer since the ferry services started departing from further up Loch Ryan
Services 2025 7 days a week, there are five trains per day to Ayr (two of which extend beyond Ayr to Kilmarnock and one of those continues to Glasgow). On Mondays to Saturdays the frequency is very uneven with gaps of between two and four hours at certain times of the day. On a Sunday all trains run to Ayr only and depart every two hours.
Bus link to Cairnryan ferry terminals In September 2013 a bus link, route 350 operated by McLeans, was introduced between the railway station and the
P&O Ferries and
Stena Line ferry terminals at
Cairnryan, operating on all days except Sundays. The bus also serves the centre of
Stranraer. In 2017 this service was rerouted and no longer calls at Stranraer station. {{rail line {{rail line ==Future==