Belfast: Grand Central Station opens to the public

A new £340m public transport hub has opened in the centre of Belfast with the start of bus services.

Translink has estimated the new Grand Central Station will cater for up to 20 million journeys a year.

The Europa bus centre closed its doors at 23:30 BST on Saturday, with the first bus departures – to Dublin and to Belfast International Airport – from the new station at 05:00 BST on Sunday.

Trains have not yet started running at the site off the Grosvenor Road. No date has been set for the beginning of rail services, but it may happen before the end of October.

Rail passengers have faced disruption since the nearby Great Victoria Street train station closed in May, while Translink has said rail services at the new station will begin pending safety checks being completed.

The transport hub has been built behind the previous bus and rail stations serving central Belfast – Europa bus centre, which dates back to 1991, and Great Victoria Street train station.

The new hub is equipped with more modern facilities and more frequent cross-border trains to Dublin.

The first passenger to enter Grand Central Station on Sunday morning was Amir Kumat.

Beginning his journey to London, he got the 05:00 BST bus to Belfast International Airport.

Speaking to BBC News NI, Mr Kumat said he was “so lucky” to be the first passenger to enter the new station.

“When I started my day I never knew I was going to be the first guy … probably I’ll be in the history books.”

He said he was “quite mesmerised after seeing the way they have created the infrastructure”, adding that the Europa station was “good but it wasn’t as grand”.

Another passenger travelling on the first bus to Dublin from the hub was Kieran Doherty.

He said he was “absolutely over the moon” to be one of the first passengers to use the station.

“I’m acutely aware that this is a really historical event. I’m surprised there aren’t more people here, but this is significant,” Mr Doherty said.

“This is history being made in Belfast, something good is happening,” he added.

Mr Doherty plans to use the station every day.

“I’m retired and every day I get the bus somewhere, to go somewhere and do something different, somewhere different. So I’ll be a regular here,” he said.

“It’s just historical, just to say that I was on the first bus out of the new station.”

Bus enthusiast Luke Wilson, from Newtownabbey, thinks it’s good “to see a 21st century station for the 21st century”.

The 20-year-old said: “It’s great to see it open for business. It’s very impressive, and it’s absolutely massive and a complete contrast to what we used to have.

“It would have been nice to see some of the eatery places and coffee shops opened, but I suppose, with anything, it takes time,” he added.

Mr Wilson is also looking forward to the rail services starting.

“I think with any building there will be teething errors, but we’ll iron through them.”

Translink chief executive Chris Conway said Grand Central Station will be a “game-changer” for bus and rail services.

“It’s a world class facility which I think everyone will appreciate when they get into it,” he said.

“This will connect towns and cities right across Northern Ireland, give us the capacity to increase the frequency on our bus network and rail network,” he said.

He added that it would also increase “connectivity across the island of Ireland with our new, hourly Enterprise service coming in later in the autumn and obviously all of our bus connections between Belfast and Dublin as well”.

Asked about the cost, funded by the Department for Infrastructure, he said: “The benefits far outweigh the cost in terms of public transport use but also the regeneration of this area and this part of Belfast.”

The new hub is situated between Sandy Row and the Grosvenor Road.

Plans for the new integrated station date back more than a decade.

The Covid-19 pandemic and rising inflation made the project difficult but the doors have opened on schedule.

Retailers confirmed for the station include Pret A Manger, Marks and Spencer and Brew Dog.

When the first pictures of inside the hub were published last week, an Irish language group complained about all the signs being in English.

Translink has defended its approach and say that Irish will appear in the station as more signage appears.

The hub is the largest public transport station on the island of Ireland and is billed as bigger than King’s Cross station in London.

It sits on a 20-acre (8 hectares) site accessed via the Grosvenor Road and Durham Street, which leads on to Sandy Row.

Construction is being done in stages, which means some of the surrounding streets will not always be accessible while public works continue.

Station construction is due to be completed in 2024 and the overall project is expected to to be finished by 2025.

Passengers can use the set-down area on the first floor of the Value Car Parks multi-storey free for the first 10 minutes. People enter the station using the main Grosvenor Road entrance or the Durham Street entrance.

Once complete, Translink has said, Grand Central Station will have eight train platforms and 26 bus stands.

The hub’s estimated cost increased to £340m in 2024 – it had been projected to cost at least £295m.

In Northern Ireland, officials statistics show 1,070 buses, 288 Metro buses and 34 Gliders were in use as of March 2024. There were 164 rail carriages used on the rail network.

In 2021, on average, each person in Northern Ireland made about 800 journeys using public transport – about 13.5 miles per day.