Thursday 17th October 2024
It’s been in the planning for over a decade and taken four years to build.
It’s cost £340 million (almost double the original £175 million estimate) due to construction cost inflation.
It’s got eight platforms for trains and 26 departure bays for buses and coaches all under one roof.
It’s been designed to cater for 20 million passengers a year compared to the current eight million.
There’ll be parking for 300 cycles and 575 car park spaces are nearby.
Welcome to the brand new Belfast Grand Central Station.
It opened for buses and coaches on 8th September but trains only started using it on Sunday so I popped over to Belfast on Tuesday to take a look.
it’s certainly Grand and fairly Central, albeit city bus routes including Glider involve a lengthy walk to the nearest bus stop to connect.
Grand Central has replaced both the City’s tired looking Europa bus and coach terminal and the adjacent Great Victoria Street railway station, with the former’s 16 bays increased to 26 and the latter’s four platforms doubled to eight in the newly combined interchange.
The Enterprise Express train between Belfast and Dublin now departs from Grand Central…
… as do cross border bus services X1 and X2.
Readers may recall I paid a visit, kindly hosted by Translink, to see construction in progress in July last year and it was obvious then what a massive project it was, even from the model on display in the construction offices.
It’s a bit like combining Victoria Coach Station and the Southern side of Victoria rail station all into one new integrated transport hub.
Occupying a 20-acre city centre site, the current edition of Buses magazine reports that Grand Central is bigger than Kings Cross station which handles 23 million rail passengers and 70 million Underground passengers which explains why you certainly get a sense of space as you enter the new Grand Central Station with its eight million passengers.
Another immediate observation, as you might pick up from the photographs, is a paucity of seating both beyond the gateline by the eight rail platforms where there are just ten seats occupying a large circulation area and five small benches and perches on each of the four island platforms…
… with around 20 more seats in the main concourse area and a few at the departure bays…
… although some had none with a large open area…
… which in some cases had a queuing system ready for use.
Whereas it’s common practice these days to provide usb sockets as part of the most up to date seating in transport interchanges and airport terminals, there wasn’t any such provision here.
In fact I found only one pair of three-pin sockets for public use in the whole building which was inside the large Pret which has opened.
Other retail units have yet to open with the finishing touches being applied to a Starbucks…
… and a large M&S Simply Food in preparation.
Another mismatch between the vast area for circulation and facilities struck me as being the toilets with smart looking facilities but containing only six urinals and five cubicles for men…
… with two accessible units behind sliding doors and two baby change rooms as well as an accessible baby change room and toilet.
There’s an upstairs area which also contains some toilets which will come in handy when the adjacent bar area is kitted out and open but for now there’s nothing up there.
Each departure bay has an electronic sign above it showing the next two departures…
… and there’s also a sign for every four departure bays listing the departures…
… but it’s positioned high up and I found it difficult to read clearly.
However there are two very big signs which show upcoming departures for both bus and rail next to each other shown over three rotating screens.
Except when it had scrolled through its three screens it annoyingly went blank for quite a time before returning to the first screen. Not good if you’re in a hurry and want to know your departure bay or platform in a hurry.
The same arrangement applies beyond the gateline for each platform with a sign above each showing the next two departures…
… and a composite sign which oddly was showing duplicates for each departure when I visited.
There’s also a sign showing bus departures as you leave the train gateline and move into the bus departure bay area.
The gateline to the platforms has six entry and six exit gates with an adjoining full width gate for each set. They’re adaptable to either be exit or entry so the balance could be adjusted for peak flows.
There are a fair number of ticket machines around the concourse – some for rail and some for bus which I found quite easy and intuitive to use….
… but there were plenty of Translink staff in high-viz around to provide assistance to anyone who needed it.
The ticket office is fully integrated and sells bus, coach and train tickets but oddly, as you can see, calls itself Customer Support rather than Ticket Office. It wasn’t immediately obvious to me that’s where you buy a ticket.
There’s also a general information point in the main concourse which had two members of staff.
Indeed, it may just be a first week phenomenon but it seemed there were almost more Translink staff on duty around the station than passengers!
Work is still going on to finish some of the departure bays…
… as well as on the access road for buses and coaches.
A bridge has been built over the railway approach to Grand Central to enable buses and coaches to access the departure bays….
… and which trains pass under as they enter the platforms.
One disappointment is the lack of level access between the platforms and the trains…
… but this is more a reflection of the train design than the platform.
Grand Central joins Hull’s Paragon Interchange as the UK’s only two truly integrated transport hubs (under the same roof) but which hopefully will be rejoined by Bradford Interchange when it reopens in the new year after its structural scare.
It’s a shame there aren’t more examples of bringing public transport together in this way – I particularly like the integrated ticket office idea and it’s good to see Grand Central has a lot of future proofing for expansion built in albeit it’ll need a few more seats and toilets when numbers using it increase. And maybe install WiFi too which was oddly absent.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
What it’s missing is a “Glider” stop. It may be possible with a rerouted Glider 2 service, as although the interchange is within the confines of the centre, it is a good 10 minute walk from the main square.
The other thing it misses is publicity of any kind. No departure board liners at bays and no printed leaflets either.
Other than that, it is an impressive structure.
LikeLike
Am I right in thinking that, when Belfast had trams, one route actually entered or terminated inside Great Victoria Street station? That’s integration!
LikeLike
Sighting difficulties with electronic departure indicator screens can be a particular problem when there is blinding sunlight from a cloudless sky! I have difficulty when it is sunny weather whenever I use Redhill and Horsham Bus Stations. I concede that my age may be a problem, but other younger travellers always seem able to help.
LikeLike
Is a ticket need to buy prior to boarding for Translink bus?
LikeLike
Tickets can be purchased on board (Translink have only just rolled out card payments on the whole network), you can tap-in on city centre routes. For further afield including Goldliner services tickets can be purchased in advance on the Translink mLink App.
LikeLike
Your comments are to the point as always – if only the designers of places like this would sign up to this blog – or maybe give you a call …
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a visitors appreciation of Belfast having gone there a couple of years ago to see hydrogen buses clutching a homemade bus timetable using Internet downloads.
If I visit again the bus and train ticket machines look ideal to equip me with travel products to meet a visitors needs.
However looking at maps on Visit Belfast and Translink today I can’t find Belfast Grand Central which does nothing to inspire confidence.
City centre route maps remain as crude diagrams, you thought Brighton latest bus map was bad but I’m pleased to report that feedback given to B&H via the local bus user group is being taken on board.
Belfast’s Metro bus network is numbered by corridors with a multiplicity of suffix letters.
My abiding memory of Belfast buses is a board in the central square with a list of bus route numbers showing the new corridor number with the old number alongside in the format 6e = 24.
On the subject of electronic station signage, when you next travel from London Euston you will find there have been changes made to mitigate previous issues.
The countdown to gate closing two minutes before trains depart has been replaced by train departing “on time” to deter travellers from rushing.
Also the train describer at platform entrance shows departure information before the large screens so regulars, those in the know (e.g. readers of this blog) or use Apps enter first.
When the platform number is displayed on the large screens those with advance tickets who have turned Euston into an airport terminal causing toilet queues then proceed to the platform and cram into coaches B and E.
Amazing what can be achieved when the will exists.
John Nicholas
LikeLike
Another thing at Euston, Network Rail have been ordered to switch off that big ugly digital ad board, which replaced the old departure boards back in January, & Network Rail have been ordered to come up with a 5 point improvement plan to improve passenger experience.
SM
LikeLike
Used this for the first time on Monday on the scenic route to Derry~Londonderry train route. It’s certainly a huge improvement on what went before, but yes Translink have missed a number of “tricks” as Roger points out – inadequate toilet facilities (there was a queue in the Gents and the place isn’t fully open yet), lack of USB charging points, “Customer Services” instead of a ticket office. Given the vast, cavernous nature of the building some soft landscaping (trees and plants) would improve the place no end. They’re still phasing in the transfer or some bus services – not sure what the holdup is there. But it’s great for Northern Ireland to see something on this scale and quality being built.
LikeLike
Grand Central isn’t even the first integrated bus/rail interchange facility in Northern Ireland. Both Bangor and Coleraine offer combined bus/rail services with passenger access via one structure. These have been developed due to the past history of the state owned rail and bus operators going back over 75 years to the days of the Ulster Transport Authority. As the rail network was trimmed and slimmed down, redundant goods yards and sometimes entire station sites created by line closures were converted to bus depots and bus stations to house the replacement bus services. Ulsterbus today still have their depots located in several long closed railway stations, notable examples being Armagh, Newry (Edward Street) and Newcastle to name but three. Even Grand Central is largely built on the site of the former Grosvenor Road Goods Depot.
By the way. Those departure screens showing duplicate information would suffering a “comms issue”, which means a glitch in the mobile phone network which supplies the data to the displays.
LikeLike
I suspect “Customer Services” is a deliberate misnomer. Public facing organisations don’t seem to want to serve their customers face to face any more. The digital generation prefers to poke at screens. I expect Translink wants people to use the TVMs.
Peter Brown
LikeLike
speaking of Hull, East Yorkshire are ending their operations on the Humberfastcat 350 from next month, leaving Stagecoach as the sole operator! Another joint service finishing.
LikeLike
My goodness what an impressive structure. Of course Northern Ireland has a completely integrated operating model so they should be able to eventually use this huge space for a much bigger and planned public transport network. I have only visited Belfast once decades ago. Time to visit again. It is clear that Ireland is also investing significantly in bus and rail all over the nation in a coordinated and integrated way. Again I may plan a visit soon. Thank you for covering this.
LikeLike
Somewhat strangely, the electronic displays for the 300 Belfast International, and 600 Belfast City, airport routes, are titled “Aldergrove” and “Sydenham”.
I suppose it’s nice to have a Pret-a-manger and M&S in the new development, but I’ll miss the quirky range of shops in the arcade arcade leading to Great Victoria St Staion/Europa Buscentre.
Philip Rushworth
LikeLike