Belfast Great Victoria Street railway station

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

Great Victoria Street
NI Railways
General information
LocationBelfast
Northern Ireland
Coordinates54.5942°N 5.9362°W / 54.5942; -5.9362
Owned byNI Railways
Operated byNI Railways
Platforms4
Construction
Structure typeAt-grade
History
Original companyUlster Railway
Post-groupingGreat Northern Railway (Ireland)
Key dates
1839 (1839)First station opened
1848First terminus completed
1968Terminus largely demolished
1976First station closed
1995Second station opened
2024/2025Scheduled closure
Location
Great Victoria Street is located in Northern Ireland
Great Victoria Street
Great Victoria Street
Location within Northern Ireland

Great Victoria Street station shares a site with Europa Buscentre, the primary bus station serving Belfast City Centre. It will be replaced by Belfast Grand Central station, a combined bus and railway station, by 2025.[1]

Great Victoria Street is the busiest railway station in Northern Ireland, with 3,939,261 passengers passing through the station in 2022 - 2023.[2]

History
Drawing of a grand Victorian stone building, with its central entrance lined with columns.
The 1848 Godwin-designed terminus building, as drawn in 1854.
One small wing of the previously-illustrated building, with temporary huts in the place of the rest of the structure.
Remains of the station building in 1976, before final demolition.
Narrow, bright alleyway, leading to a modern arched entrance of a single-floor, brick-built building.
Entrance to station in 2009.

The station is on the site of a former linen mill, beside where Durham Street crossed the Blackstaff River at the Saltwater (now Boyne) Bridge.

The Ulster Railway opened the first station on 12 August 1839 (1839-08-12). A new terminal building, probably designed by Ulster Railway engineer John Godwin, was completed in 1848.[3] Godwin later founded the School of Civil Engineering at Queen's College.[3]

The station, built directly on Victoria Street, was Belfast's first railway terminus, and as such was called just "Belfast" until 1852. By this time, two other railway companies had opened termini in Belfast, so the Ulster Railway renamed its terminus "Belfast Victoria Street" for clarity. In 1855 the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway was completed,[4] making Victoria Street the terminus for one of the most important main lines in Ireland. The Ulster Railway changed the station name again to "Great Victoria Street" in 1856, in line with a change of the street name.

In 1876 the Ulster Railway became part of the Great Northern Railway (GNR),[4] 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 Connolly station was always 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.[5] As Belfast suburbs grew, commuter traffic also grew in volume.

The view inside the vaulted ceiling of a metal shed-like structure, bustling with people
Interior of the original station in 1976.

In 1958, the Ulster Transport Authority took over Northern Ireland's bus and rail services. Three years later Great Victoria Street station was modernised, and a bus centre incorporated into the facility.[5] Then in 1968, a large section of the 1848 terminal building was demolished to make way for the development of the Europa Hotel, which opened in 1971.[5]

During the conflict known as The Troubles, the station was attacked several times. On 22 March 1972, 70 people were injured, a train was destroyed and the station significantly damaged by a Car bomb.[6] Another bomb explosion happened on 21 July, destroying four busses but causing no casualties. This was one of 20 bombs that exploded that day, planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in an event that became known as Bloody Friday[7]

In April 1976 Northern Ireland Railways closed both Great Victoria Street[5] and the Belfast Queen's Quay terminus of the Bangor line and replaced them both with a new Belfast Central Station, now renamed Lanyon Place. The remainder of Great Victoria Street station was demolished. After a feasibility study was commissioned in 1986 it was agreed that a new development on the site, incorporating the reintroduction of the Great Northern Railway, was viable. The Great Northern Tower had already been built on the site of the old station terminus in 1992,[8] and so the second Great Victoria Street Station was built behind the tower block, yards from the site of its predecessor. The new station was opened on 30 September 1995.[9]

Railway station
Photo looking along the length of two curved railway platforms, taken from under a shelter and looking out into daylight.
Great Victoria Street platforms in 2011.

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~Londonderry line, Newry line and Larne Line trains all terminating there.

Service

On Mondays to Saturdays, there are half-hourly services to Bangor or Portadown on the Bangor and Portadown Lines, with some Portadown-bound trains continuing on to Newry.

There is also a half-hourly service on the Larne Line, with the terminus being Whitehead every half hour and Larne Harbour being the terminus every hour.

Derry~Londonderry Line trains operate hourly from Great Victoria Street to Derry~Londonderry Waterside. There is a connecting shuttle service from Coleraine to Portrush via the Coleraine-Portrush railway line.

On Sundays, the Bangor, Larne, and Portadown Line services all reduce to hourly operation. Derry~Londonderry Line services reduce to two-hourly operation, with only seven trains running each way. Derry~Londonderry Line trains are still hourly but alternate between Derry Waterside and Portrush, except for the final train of the evening, which terminates at Coleraine.

Railway access from Great Victoria Street at Sydenham links into George Best Belfast City Airport on the line to Bangor.

Future

NI Railways has built a new traincare facility next to Adelaide station for its new Class 4000 diesel multiple units. The opportunity was also taken to improve the infrastructure at Great Victoria Street; the plan to begin with was to reduce the curves by realigning the track, and moving the buffer stops and the route from the platforms to the concourse to the other side of Durham Street. Additionally there were plans to add a fifth platform to the station, which would have culminated in Enterprise services transferring from Lanyon Place to Great Victoria Street.[10] However, under Translink's subsequent plan to build a new integrated transport hub, the proposal has expanded to the potential construction of a brand new 6–8 platform station on the site of the old Grosvenor Road freight depot, close to the existing station, because the existing site is too constrained for any further expansion.[11]

Rail and sea connections

Port of Belfast

The Port of Belfast has a Stena Line ferry connecting to Cairnryan for the bus link[12] to Stranraer and onward trains along the Glasgow South Western Line to Glasgow Central.

Preceding station   Ferry   Following station
Stranraer Harbour
(via bus link from Cairnryan[12])		   Stena Line
Ferry		   Port of Belfast
(from Yorkgate, Lanyon Place or Belfast Great Victoria Street)
Liverpool   Stena Line
Ferry		   Port of Belfast
(from Yorkgate, Lanyon Place or Belfast Great Victoria Street)
Douglas   Isle of Man Steam Packet
Ferry(seasonal)		   Port of Belfast
(from Yorkgate, Lanyon Place or Belfast Great Victoria Street)
Stranraer Harbour
(via bus link from Cairnryan[12])		   P&O Ferries
Ferry		   Larne Harbour

Port of Larne

The Larne line connects with Larne Harbour with P&O Ferries sailing to Cairnryan for the bus link[12] to Stranraer and onward trains along the Glasgow South Western Line to Glasgow Central, as well as alternative sailings by P&O Ferries to Troon also on the Glasgow South Western Line to Glasgow Central.

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.[13] 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, Banbridge, Omagh, Downpatrick, Cavan, Newcastle, Strabane and Armagh. Also, services from the Buscentre serve both Belfast City Airport and Belfast International Airport directly.[14] Ulsterbus runs joint services with Bus Éireann for its direct express service to Dublin and Dublin Airport, with National Express to Dumfries, Carlisle, Manchester, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and London, and with Citylink to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

  • View in 1975 with the Enterprise to Dublin Connolly.
    View in 1975 with the Enterprise to Dublin Connolly.
  • View of the former GNR railway station when used by Ulsterbus in 1988.
    View of the former GNR railway station when used by Ulsterbus in 1988.
  • The closed station being rebuilt in 1995 for NIR services bar the Enterprise.
    The closed station being rebuilt in 1995 for NIR services bar the Enterprise.
  • View of platforms in 1995.
    View of platforms in 1995.
  • Platforms 2 and 3 at Great Victoria Street in August 2007.
    Platforms 2 and 3 at Great Victoria Street in August 2007.
  • NIR service in 2011 on the Derry~Londonderry railway line.
    NIR service in 2011 on the Derry~Londonderry railway line.
  • The permanent way down the platforms in 2011.
    The permanent way down the platforms in 2011.

References
  1. "Belfast Transport Hub to be called Grand Central Station". BBC News. 8 April 2022. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
  2. "FOI1317 NIR Footfall 2223.xlsx". www.whatdotheyknow.com. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  3. Pollock, Vivienne; Parkhill, Trevor (2001). A Century of Belfast. Swindon: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-2897-2.
  4. "The Belfast Hub: Making History" (PDF). Translink. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  5. "The Belfast Hub: Making History" (PDF). Translink. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  6. "70 injured as bomb wrecks Belfast station". The Times. No. 58434. London. 23 March 1972. p. 1.
  7. "CAIN: Events: Bloody Friday - Northern Ireland Office News-sheet on 'Bloody Friday'". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  8. "17 Great Victoria Street – Great Northern Tower". futurebelfast.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  9. "John Bennett's Railways Journeys – Part 6: An Enterprising Journey". BBC NI. Archived from the original on 1 November 2009. Retrieved 8 August 2008.
  10. Ferris, Cyril (2009). "Enterprise moving to Great Victoria Street?". Today's Railways UK (97): 37.
  11. Watson, W.; McFerran, A. (2015). "Proposal to close Great Victoria Street". Rail Express (228): 96.
  12. "Timetable: 350 Stranraer – Railway Station – Cairnryan Ferry Ports". Dumfries and Galloway Council. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  13. "Europa Bus Centre, Belfast". Robinson McIlwaine. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  14. Goldline Timetable
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