Belfast Great Victoria Street railway station

Great Victoria Street
General information
Location	Belfast Northern Ireland
Coordinates	54°35′39″N 5°56′10″W / 54.5942°N 5.9362°W / 54.5942; -5.9362
Owned by	NI Railways
Operated by	NI Railways
Platforms	4
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
History
Original company	Ulster Railway
Post-grouping	Great Northern Railway (Ireland)
Key dates
August 12 1839 (August 12 1839)	First station opened
November 13 1848	First terminus completed
November 1968	Terminus largely demolished
April 24 1976	First station closed
September 30 1995	Second station opened
May 10 2024 [1]	Scheduled closure
NI Railways Translink NI railway stations
Location
Great Victoria Street Location within Northern Ireland

Great Victoria Street is a railway station serving the city centre of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is one of two main stations in the city, along with Lanyon Place, and is nearest the city centre. The station is off Great Victoria Street and shares a site with the Europa Buscentre, Belfast's main bus station. Both will be replaced by Belfast Grand Central station, which is being built beside them.^[2] Great Victoria Street railway station will close permanently on 10 May 2024, several months before the new station opens in late 2024.^[3]

Great Victoria Street is the busiest railway station in Northern Ireland, with 3,939,261 passengers passing through the station in 2022–2023.^[4]

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 is on the site of a former linen mill, beside where Durham Street crossed the Blackstaff River at the Saltwater (now Boyne) Bridge.

The

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,^[6] 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),^[6] 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

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.^[7] 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.^[7]

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.^[8] Another bomb explosion happened on 21 July, destroying four busses but causing 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^[9]

In April 1976

Railway station

The current station has two island platforms providing a total of four platform faces. Platforms 2 and 3 run the full length of the site and open onto the station's main concourse. Platforms 1 and 4 are half the length and are accessible by walking down the other platforms.

Great Victoria Street is the hub of Northern Ireland's suburban rail services, with

Service

On Mondays to Saturdays, there are half-hourly services to

There is also a half-hourly service on the Larne Line, with the terminus being Whitehead every half hour and Larne Harbour being the terminus every hour.

Derry~Londonderry Line trains operate hourly from Great Victoria Street to

On Sundays, the Bangor, Larne, and Portadown Line services all reduce to hourly operation. Derry~Londonderry Line services reduce to two-hourly operation, with only seven trains running each way. Derry~Londonderry Line trains are still hourly but alternate between Derry Waterside and Portrush, except for the final train of the evening, which terminates at Coleraine.

Preceding station		Northern Ireland Railways		Following station
Terminus		Belfast-Derry		City Hospital
		Belfast-Larne
		Belfast-Bangor
Adelaide		Belfast-Newry		City Hospital
	Proposed
Terminus		Belfast-Dublin		Portadown
	Historical railways
Terminus		Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Enterprise Express		Amiens Street Line and station open

Air Link

Railway access from Great Victoria Street at

Future

NI Railways have built a new traincare facility next to

• 
  View in 1975 with the

  Dublin Connolly

  .
• 
  View of the former

  GNR railway station when used by Ulsterbus

  in 1988.
• 
  The closed station being rebuilt in 1995 for

  Enterprise

  .
• 
  View of platforms in 1995.
• 
  Platforms 2 and 3 at Great Victoria Street in August 2007.
• 
  NIR

  service in 2011 on the Derry~Londonderry railway line.
• 
  The

  permanent way

  down the platforms in 2011.

References