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Permanent closure of Belfast Great Victoria Street station

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The exile

The exile

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Obviously it’s going to a bit inconvenient for the next few months but from what I remember, Great Victoria Street is going to be no great loss!
 
The exile

The exile

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duffield said:
I saw the thread title and thought it sounded like the end of another magnificent historic railway building! Errr... I guess not then. :E
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I think that happened rather explosively at various points in the 1970s.
 
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route101

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I was at Belfast Great Victoria Street yesterday and didn't know this was happening! I was surprised to hear Anne announcements .
 
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MrJeeves

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route101 said:
I was at Belfast Great Victoria Street yesterday and didn't know this was happening! I was surprised to hear Anne announcements .
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Worldline provide the CIS across the NI Railways network. Very weird if you weren't expecting it!
 
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trubla

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Oh Dear. When visiting in-laws a longer walk from the station to the Crown Liquor Bar for food and back again. And a few pints of lovely ale.
 
neonison

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Not entirely clear on its history.
When I visited NI in 1977 it was not in use. A single route ran from Lisburn and the south through Belfast to Bangor.
I appreciate the Larne line is now connected through a new (?) chord but GVS seems less that 40 years old.
 
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zwk500

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neonison said:
Not entirely clear on its history.
When I visited NI in 1977 it was not in use. A single route ran from Lisburn and the south through Belfast to Bangor.
I appreciate the Larne line is now connected through a new (?) chord but GVS seems less that 40 years old.
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As best I can make out:
Pre-1876: The Belfast & County Down railway approached from the East and terminated at Queen's Quay. The Great Northern Railway (of Ireland) approached from the South and terminated at Great Victoria Street, and the Belfast & Northern Counties railway approached from the north and terminated at York Road.
1876-1885: The Belfast Central railway is built and the GNR(I) ran passenger trains (from 1878) between Adelaide and Queen's Bridge (on the opposite side of the Lagan to Queen's Quay), with a connection to the B&CDR immeidately east of Queen's Quay. There was no connection from GVS to the BCR. A connection to the B&NCR was planned but in the end was built slightly later and made use of the harbour board's lines so wasn't useful for through passenger services.
1885: The BCR closes to passengers but remains usable by excursions and goods.
(1948: Ulster Transport Authority formed, begins closures in 1950s)
1965: A bridge is removed between the former Queen's Bridge and York Road severing the connection to the former B&NCR.
(1968: Northern Ireland Railways formed)
1976: BCR reopened to passenger services, GVS and Queen's Quay closed and services from Bangor and Newry/Portadown/Lisburn diverted to Belfast Central.
1992: York Road closed and replaced by Yorkgate in preparation for rebuilding of cross-harbour link
1994: Link to the former BCR reopened and through services from Belfast Central to Larne and Londonderry/Derry start.
1995: Current GVS reopens due to Belfast Central being not convenient for the city centre.

Nowadays the 4-platform GVS has been outgrown by passenger numbers, and redevelopment gives opportunity for twice as many platforms, longer platforms, a new Enterprise Lounge, integration with bus and Glider transport and better rail capacity at the station throat.

I highly recommend these pages:
 
neonison

neonison

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zwk500 said:
As best I can make out:
Pre-1876: The Belfast & County Down railway approached from the East and terminated at Queen's Quay. The Great Northern Railway (of Ireland) approached from the South and terminated at Great Victoria Street, and the Belfast & Northern Counties railway approached from the north and terminated at York Road.
1876-1885: The Belfast Central railway is built and the GNR(I) ran passenger trains (from 1878) between Adelaide and Queen's Bridge (on the opposite side of the Lagan to Queen's Quay), with a connection to the B&CDR immeidately east of Queen's Quay. There was no connection from GVS to the BCR. A connection to the B&NCR was planned but in the end was built slightly later and made use of the harbour board's lines so wasn't useful for through passenger services.
1885: The BCR closes to passengers but remains usable by excursions and goods.
(1948: Ulster Transport Authority formed, begins closures in 1950s)
1965: A bridge is removed between the former Queen's Bridge and York Road severing the connection to the former B&NCR.
(1968: Northern Ireland Railways formed)
1976: BCR reopened to passenger services, GVS and Queen's Quay closed and services from Bangor and Newry/Portadown/Lisburn diverted to Belfast Central.
1992: York Road closed and replaced by Yorkgate in preparation for rebuilding of cross-harbour link
1994: Link to the former BCR reopened and through services from Belfast Central to Larne and Londonderry/Derry start.
1995: Current GVS reopens due to Belfast Central being not convenient for the city centre.

Nowadays the 4-platform GVS has been outgrown by passenger numbers, and redevelopment gives opportunity for twice as many platforms, longer platforms, a new Enterprise Lounge, integration with bus and Glider transport and better rail capacity at the station throat.

I highly recommend these pages:
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Many thanks!
The only other connection, albeit outside of Belfast but one which I have done was Lisburn to Antrim.
 
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Backroom_boy

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Any inside track on when Grand Central will open? Publicly its 'Autumn '24' but that leaves a lot of leeway.

Also is the Enterprise service moving straight away or remains at Lanyon Place till the new year?
 
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bangor-toad

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There's not a huge amount of detail available. "Autumn 2024" is about as good as it gets for the detail of when the new station will open.

The run up to that is going to be annoying though.
From 3rd July the line between Lisburn and Lanyon Place will close. There will be rail replacements buses every 10 minutes between Lisburn and Belfast Monday to Saturday and hourly on Sunday. All Bangor, Larne and Londonderry services will terminate at Lanyon Place. If you want to get across Belfast from Lanyon Place you can walk or take one of the normal buses.

That's going to make my travel to work a bit awkward...
Somewhat concerningly the information about this closure used to be July and August, now it's changed to Wednesday 3rd July – Early Autumn 2024.

It looks as if the Enterprise will run Dublin <--> Newry only from 3rd July. I suspect it will only restart to Belfast once the new station is open. I've seem no confirmation of that though.


Information is available on the Translink website (which in it's usual form doesn't make it easy to find!) Scroll to nearly the bottom of: Translink website page

Cheers,
Mr Toad
 
Turtle

Turtle

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Backroom_boy said:
So it'll be touch and go whether Enterprise is running from Grand Central by mid-October? (When I'm Planning a visit)
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Ah yes. Gt Victoria St. The only UK station where accidentally boarding the wrong train would result in arriving in the wrong country.
 
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MrJeeves

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gnolife said:
Do they do checks at St Pancras after clearing passport control to get onto the platform?
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No, not normally, but there is a member of staff near each door who usually is receptive to being shown a ticket, and also announcements on board prior to departure.

Often less of an issue due to the time between departures though.
 
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