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 the adjacent Belfast Grand Central station with the official opening on 13 October 2024.[12] 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.[13][14] Europa Buscentre closed permanently on 7 September 2024,[15] with bus services immediately transferring to the new station, commencing with a service to Dublin at 5 a.m. on 8 September 2024.[16][17]
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.[6]
History
The 1848 Godwin-designed terminus building, as drawn in 1854.
Remains of the station building in 1976, before final demolition.
Entrance to station in 2009.
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 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.[18] Godwin later founded the School of Civil Engineering at Queen's College.[18]
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,[19] 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),[19] 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.[20] As Belfast suburbs grew, commuter traffic also grew in volume.
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.[20] 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.[20]
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.[21] 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[22]
In April 1976 Northern Ireland Railways closed both Great Victoria Street[20] 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,[23] 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.[24] 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.
Railway station
Great Victoria Street platforms in 2011.
The final station had two island platforms providing 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.[citation needed]
On Mondays to Saturdays, there were half-hourly services to Bangor or Portadown on the Bangor and Portadown Lines, with some Portadown-bound trains continuing on to Newry.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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 a fifth platform to the station, which would have culminated in Enterprise services transferring from Lanyon Place to Great Victoria Street.[26] 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.[27] 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.[28]
Great Victoria Street station closed permanently on 10 May 2024.[29]
Europa Buscentre closed permanently on 7 September 2024,[36] with bus services immediately transferring to Belfast Grand Central Station, commencing with a service to Belfast International Airport and Dublin at 5 a.m on 8 September 2024.[37][38]
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