Belfast Great Victoria Street railway station

Belfast Great Victoria Street is a major railway station serving the city centre of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is one of two major stations in the city, along with Belfast Central, and is one of the four stations located in the city centre, the others being Belfast Central, Botanic and City Hospital. It is near Great Victoria Street, one of Belfast's premier commercial zones, and Sandy Row. It is in a more central position than Belfast Central, with the Europa Hotel, Grand Opera House and The Crown Liquor Saloon are all nearby.

History

The station is on the site of an former linen mill, where Durham Street crossed the Blackstaff River.

The Ulster Railway opened the first station on 12 August 1839. It was Belfast's first railway terminus, and as such was called just "Belfast" until 1852. By then two other railway companies had opened termini in Belfast, so the Ulster Railway renamed its terminus "Belfast Victoria Street" for clarity. 1852 was also the year that the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway was completed, making Victoria Street the terminus for one of the most important main lines on the island of Ireland. The Ulster Railway had added a new station building in 1848, and changed the station name again to "Great Victoria Street" in 1856.

In 1876 the Ulster Railway became part of the Great Northern Railway (GNR), making Great Victoria Street the terminus for a network that extended south to Dublin and west to Derry and Bundoran.

Express passenger traffic to and from Dublin Amiens Street has always been Great Victoria Street's most prestigious traffic. The GNR upgraded its expresses over the decades and in 1947 introduced the Enterprise non-stop service between the two capitals. As Belfast suburbs grew, commuter traffic also grew in volume and importance for the GNR and for Great Victoria Street station.

In April 1976 Northern Ireland Railways closed both Great Victoria Street and the Belfast Queen's Quay terminus of the Bangor line and replaced them with a new Belfast Central station. Great Victoria Steet station was demolished and the Great Northern Tower built in its place.

The second Great Victoria Street Station was opened on 30 September 1995.^[1] It is only yards from the site of its predecessor.

Railway station

The current station has two island platforms providing a total of four platform faces. Platforms 2 and 3 run the full length of the site and open onto the station's main concourse. Platforms 1 and 4 are half the length and are accessible by walking down the other platforms.

Great Victoria Street is the hub of Northern Ireland's suburban rail services, with Bangor line, Derry Line, Larne line and Newry line trains all terminating there.

Service

Mondays to Saturdays on the Newry to Bangor line there is a half-hourly service towards Portadown or Newry in one direction and to Bangor in the other with extra services at peak times and the service is hourly in the evenings. On the Larne line there are a few services a day from Larne Harbour which end here Mondays-Fridays and on Saturdays the service increases to half-hourly and on the Derry line there is a two-hourly service to Derry with a few services to Portrush.

On Sundays the Newry-to-Bangor service runs hourly service to Bangor or Portadown. On the Larne line there is two-hourly service to Larne Harbour and on the Derry line there are five trains to Derry.

Future

NI Railways are to build a new traincare facility next to Adelaide station for its new Class 4000 diesel multiple units. The opportunity is being taken to improve the infrastructure at Great Victoria Street; there are plans to reduce the curves by realigning the track, and move the buffer stops and the route from the platforms to the concourse to the other side of Durham Street. Also there are plans to add a fifth platform to the station. These plans will culminate in Enterprise services transferring from Belfast Central to Great Victoria Street.^[2]

Europa Buscentre

Great Victoria Street is part of a major public transport interchange, being adjacent to the Europa Buscentre. This was built in 1991 as the ground floor level of a multi-storey car park.^[3] The Buscentre is the Belfast terminus for most Ulsterbus "Goldline" services in Northern Ireland . These serve various destinations that are not on the railway network, including Enniskillen, Omagh and Armagh. Also, services from the Buscentre serve both Belfast City Airport and Belfast International Airport directly.^[4] Bus Éireann also serves Europa Buscentre for its direct express service between Dublin and Belfast.

Gallery

References