On 13th October 2024, rail services started operating out of a huge new station in Belfast called Grand Central. Designed to provide an integrated multimodal hub, it has 8 rail platforms and 26 bus stands, making it one of the largest openings I’ve ever attended!
Join me as I ride the first train to and from the new station, explore its facilities, and interview those involved with its implementation!
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro, Entering the Station
2:09 First Train OUT of Grand Central
4:11 Context
4:52 Souvenir Ticket
6:07 Lisburn
7:14 First Train IN to Grand Central
8:12 Interview with Ian Campbell
9:40 Exploring the Station Facilities
16:17 Outro, Closing Thoughts
27 Comments
Video took longer to edit than I would have liked because I'm still recovering from an illness (you can hear my voice is still quite croakey in the video) but here it is, enjoy!
Excellent to finally see belfast getting the upgrades it deserves!
I was watching the service passing through finaghy on the bgc platform
Great video! Belfast really needed this upgrade!
I'll be visiting Belfast Grand Central station tomorrow , really existed for the new experiences.
First train into Belfast the enterprise
Lovely as it should be
Awsome video I was there think I saw you
I knew I recognised you when I saw you with that big camera on Sunday!
One thing I will note, the modern Great Victoria Street Station that was replaced was only situated on part of the site for the original Great Victoria Street Station. The original GVS Station was demolished in the 70s, which led to the NIR termini being moved to Belfast Central (not Lanyon Place). It wasn't untill the mid 1990s when Translink was created and then decided to build a new station in the city centre, naming it after its predecessor.
Great video!
Also, spotted the back of my noggin at 5:58! 🤣
So this is a brand new station and there is no sign of electrification?!
Excellent film Michael, the best I've seen yet. Keep up the great work young man!
Living in Manchester myself, I’m more inclined to get the train from Manchester Victoria to Liverpool Lime St, get the Liverpool (Birkenhead) to Belfast Ferry, then get to this station for the Enterprise train to Dublin, instead of the Holyhead to Dublin ferry
7:19 I suspect the wider track gauge on Northern Irish railways is because Iarnrod Éireann generally have a wider gauge
Lovely but tbh it’s not huge. Some of the stations in London have 20 platforms with long trains constantly coming in and out.
I thought they might have more platforms tbh.
Good to see they have ticket barriers.
I just wish they’d dual most of our network otherwise this is pointless.
Congratulations to Belfast ❤
Regarding rail gauges: at least the different gauges on the island of Ireland and in Great Britain are separated by the Irish Sea. In pre-Federation Australia, Victoria opted for broad/Irish gauge, NSW for standard/British/Stephenson gauge and Queensland, solely to save costs, came up with its own narrow gauge (1067mm). While standard gauge was eventually adopted for interstate travel, it has been superseded by air travel making Melbourne-Sydney the fifth busiest passenger flight route in the world.
Only criticism is Platforms seemed narrow . Are they gonna keep only letting people in when the train's there? Also I don't think those canopies will keep the weather off.
Otherwise impressive . Also I liked Lisburn station, as a contrast .
Nice station, just need to improve the Track between Belfast-Dublin. Its 87 miles and it takes 2 hours 15 mins to travel between Belfast-Dublin. Thats about 30 MPH
The mountains in view are lovely. Ireland has some of the most scenic railways in the world, sadly neglected for the last 50 years or more.
What sticks out here amongst all this modernity, that there is no electrification of the railway.
With reference to the track gauge. I seem to remember watching a YT video years ago about the different gauge in NI, it came about because they had a choice of 2 gauges, I presume one was the standard gauge and the other something else of a wider gauge.No one could make their minds up, which gauge to run on, so they decided on a measurement halfway between the 2 different gauges. So wider than standard gauge and narrower of the other wider gauge on offer. As I say, it is something from memory, so needs confirmation as to the facts of the story.
Canopy under canopy probably for effective lighting
Mustn’t be expecting many bus passengers looking at the number of available seats
It is
This was built to get ready for a united lreland in the near future, they are doing the same to the main roads as well 😮
i like how they still have ATOS anne there
I would have preferred them to have called the station 'Belfast Weavers Cross' … so Ireland's version of King's Cross. There are too many Grand Centrals…
Great station & a numbered souvenir! Good video, too.