The branch line that served it was a quiet offshoot of the broader network that spread across Connacht during the railway-building era of the nineteenth century, and its closure left the town as one of the larger settlements in County Galway without any rail connection, a situation that has persisted ever since.

The Loughrea branch was a short spur line running from Attymon Junction on the main Galway to Dublin route, covering just under nine miles into the town. It opened in 1890 under the auspices of the Attymon and Loughrea Light Railway, later absorbed into the Great Southern and Western Railway and subsequently into the nationalised CIÉ network. The line was built under the Light Railways Act, legislation designed to make construction cheaper and faster in less densely populated areas, which is why such branches often had modest stations and relaxed engineering standards compared to mainline routes. Loughrea station served the town for several decades before the line was closed in 1975, a casualty of the broader rationalisation of Ireland's rail network that had been accelerating since the 1950s. The station building itself remains a physical reminder of that era, now listed as a recorded monument, a category that reflects its architectural and historical interest rather than any ancient origin.