30-456: Great Victoria Street was a railway station that served the city centre of Belfast , Northern Ireland. It was one of two main stations in the city, along with Lanyon Place , and was nearest to the city centre. The station was situated beside Great Victoria Street and shared a site with the Europa Buscentre , Belfast's former main bus station. The railway and bus stations were replaced by
60-503: A Stena Line ferry connecting to Cairnryan for the bus link to Stranraer and onward trains along the Glasgow South Western Line to Glasgow Central . The Larne line connects with Larne Harbour with P&O Ferries sailing to Cairnryan for the bus link 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
90-467: A fifth platform to the station, which would have culminated in Enterprise services transferring from Lanyon Place to Great Victoria Street. 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
120-663: A key example of brownfield regeneration in Europe and has won numerous awards in relation to all aspects of its development. The initial phase is now almost complete and the City Council are currently preparing a master plan in preparation for the commencement of Phase II development. Victoria Square is a commercial, residential and leisure development in Belfast developed and constructed by Multi Development UK in over 6 years. At approximately 800,000 ft (75,000m ) and costing £400m it
150-457: A service to Belfast International Airport and Dublin at 5 a.m on 8 September 2024. Belfast City Centre Belfast City Centre is the central business district of Belfast , Northern Ireland . The city centre was originally centred on the Donegall Street area. Donegall Street is now mainly a business area, but with expanding residential and entertainment development as part of
180-500: A total of four platform faces. Platforms 2 and 3 ran the full length of the site and opened onto the station's main concourse. Platforms 1 and 4 were half the length and were accessible by walking down the other platforms. Great Victoria Street was the hub of Northern Ireland's suburban rail services, with Bangor line , Derry~Londonderry line , Newry line and Larne Line trains all terminating there. On Mondays to Saturdays, there were half-hourly services to Bangor or Portadown on
210-739: Is a combined rail and bus interchange which serves the city of Bangor in County Down , Northern Ireland. The station in its current form was built in the year 2000 to celebrate the new millennium . The station was opened by the Belfast and County Down Railway on 1 May 1865 and closed to goods traffic on 24 April 1950. Daylight saving time was introduced by the Summer Time Act 1916 and implemented on 1 October 1916 as GMT plus one hour and Dublin Mean Time plus one hour. However, Dublin Mean Time (used by
240-511: Is the biggest and one of the most expensive property developments ever undertaken in Northern Ireland. It opened on 6 March 2008. Its anchor tenant at nearly 200,000 ft (18,581m ) is the largest House of Fraser that the retailer has opened in the UK (as opposed to taken over). In March 2006, the government gave the go-ahead for a £300m regeneration of a run-down part of Belfast city centre, in
270-602: 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
300-493: The Cathedral Quarter scheme - St. Anne's, Belfast's Anglican cathedral is located here. The Roman Catholic cathedral St. Peter's is located a little to the west of the city centre. Two of Belfast's three main newspapers - The Belfast Telegraph and The Irish News are also located nearby. The News Letter , which claims to be the oldest continually published English language daily newspaper still in existence,
330-556: The Cathedral Quarter , which could create up to 2,000 jobs. Plans include a new shopping centre, anchored by a department store. The project will not be completed until 2011. It is estimated that 1,000 people will help build the development and 2,000 will be employed there. Northern Ireland Railways provide access on the Belfast Suburban Rail network with stations in proximity to the city centre. Bangor railway station (Northern Ireland) Bangor Bus and Rail Centre
SECTION 10
#1732844646734360-630: The Coleraine-Portrush railway line . On Sundays, the Bangor, Larne, and Portadown Line services all reduced to hourly operation. Derry~Londonderry Line services reduced to two-hourly operation, with only seven trains running each way. Derry~Londonderry Line trains were still hourly but alternated between Derry Waterside and Portrush, except for the final train of the evening, which terminated at Coleraine. Railway access from Great Victoria Street at Sydenham linked into George Best Belfast City Airport on
390-690: The Europa Hotel , which opened in 1971. 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 . Another bomb explosion, on 21 July, destroyed four buses but caused 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 In April 1976 Northern Ireland Railways closed both Great Victoria Street and
420-607: The Glasgow South Western Line to Glasgow Central . Great Victoria Street was 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 . 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
450-516: 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 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
480-472: The Bangor and Portadown Lines, with some Portadown-bound trains continuing on to Newry . There was also a half-hourly service on the Larne Line, with the terminus alternating between Whitehead and Larne Harbour being the terminus every half hour. Derry~Londonderry Line trains operated hourly from Great Victoria Street to Derry~Londonderry with connecting shuttle service from Coleraine to Portrush via
510-622: The Buscentre serve both Belfast City Airport and Belfast International Airport directly. 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 . Europa Buscentre closed permanently on 7 September 2024, with bus services immediately transferring to Belfast Grand Central Station, commencing with
540-560: The Ulster Railway renamed its terminus "Belfast Victoria Street" for clarity. In 1855 the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway was completed, 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
570-423: The adjacent Belfast Grand Central station with the official opening on 13 October 2024. Great Victoria Street railway station closed permanently on 10 May 2024, with a bus transfer service operating until rail services commenced from Belfast Grand Central, with a service to Dublin at 8:05 a.m. on 13 October 2024. Europa Buscentre closed permanently on 7 September 2024, with bus services immediately transferring to
600-537: The building, before it was reconstructed again to a new design in 2000. In the year 2000, then-mayor of Bangor Alan Chambers sealed a time capsule near the entrance of the station which is to be opened in 2100. Mondays to Saturdays there is a half-hourly service toward Belfast Grand Central . Extra services operate at peak times and reduce to hourly operation in the evenings. Certain peak-time services from this station operate as expresses between Bangor West and Holywood or Belfast Lanyon Place . On Sundays, there
630-492: The existing site is too constrained for any further expansion. It was announced that the station would close permanently on 10 May 2024, though the line from Belfast to Lisburn would remain open using the third side of the triangular track layout to bypass the GVS/GC site, as services used to do during the station's first closure from 1976-1995. Great Victoria Street station closed permanently on 10 May 2024. The Port of Belfast has
SECTION 20
#1732844646734660-512: 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. Godwin later founded the School of Civil Engineering at Queen's College . 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
690-598: The landmark Waterfront Hall , BT Tower, Hilton Hotel , Odyssey Complex and various riverside apartment complexes. The Gasworks Business Park is owned by Belfast City Council and managed by the Councils Estates Management Unit. The site contains commercial offices, call centres , small business units, housing, cafés & restaurants, the Radisson Hotel and an award-winning public landscaped park. The Gasworks has been internationally recognised as
720-443: The line to Bangor . NI Railways constructed a new traincare facility next to Adelaide station for its 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
750-541: The new station, commencing with a service to Dublin at 5 a.m. on 8 September 2024. Great Victoria Street was the busiest railway station in Northern Ireland at closure, with a peak of 5,347,662 passengers passing through the station in 2018–2019. The station was 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
780-523: The railways) had a disparity of twenty-five minutes with Greenwich Mean Time, which meant that the Bangor Railway Station Clock was to be put back only thirty-five minutes instead of one hour. An additional complication was that the clocks in Belfast and Bangor were twenty-three minutes and thirty-nine seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time (not twenty-five minutes as in Dublin), so the final adjustment
810-429: The site of the old station terminus in 1992, 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. The station closed on Friday 10 May 2024 to make way for the new Belfast Grand Central station. The last train to depart was the 23:32 service to Bangor . The final station had two island platforms providing
840-467: The two capitals. As Belfast suburbs grew, commuter traffic also grew in volume. 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. Then in 1968, a large section of the 1848 terminal building was demolished to make way for the development of
870-560: Was originally located in the area at 55 Donegall Street, site of a massive Provisional IRA carbomb in March 1972, in which seven people died and 148 were injured. The city centre is now centred on Donegall Square (location of the City Hall ), Donegall Place, Royal Avenue , Castle Junction, High Street and surrounding streets and alleys. Over the past decade the city Centre has seen expansive redevelopment. The Laganside Development includes
900-616: Was thirty-six minutes and twenty-one seconds. The change to the time displayed on the Bangor Station Clock was not welcomed by commuters. The station buildings were originally erected in 1864–1865 to designs by the architect Charles Lanyon . Following World War 2, however, refurbishments made by the Ulster Transport Authority to this Italianate structure damaged the original Lanyon-designed building, stripping it of much of its original brickwork. The company then rebuilt
#733266