Belfast Grand Central Station a £340m 'game-changer' for Northern Ireland public transport

Final touches are being put in place at Belfast's Grand Central Station as it gears up to open to the public.

Bus services will operate from the site from Sunday 8 September, but no date has been set for the commencement of rail services at the new transport hub.

Translink chief executive Chris Conway hopes there will be announcement "soon".

Bus services currently operating from the Europa Bus Centre will relocate to Grand Central Station from Sunday.

The first bus service to depart from the new site will travel to Dublin at 5am.

Chris Conway described the development, which is expected to cost around £340million, as "a world class facility", and "a modern station fit for a modern city".

"We want to make sure we keep safety as our number one priority," he explained.

"Buses will start phasing over from Sunday, from the Europa to Belfast Grand Central Station.

"We're working closely with the safety authority to be able to announce a date for the railway opening soon.

"We hope to have over 20m passengers through these doors on an annual basis," he added.

"To put that into context, Belfast City Airport sees maybe 2m per year, while Belfast International sees about six or 7m.

"The new station will double the capacity we have on our public transport network coming into Belfast and it will increase connectivity in Northern Ireland and right across the island of Ireland.

"The important thing is that we use it to increase capacity in our bus and rail network and get more people using public transport, and for me that will be the real test as to whether this has worked," he added.

Duane McCreadie is a project director for Farrans Sacyri. He told UTV that there are approximately "250 operatives on site on a daily basis".

"There have been about 5,000 people who have played a part in building the station," he added.

"We've had joiners, electricians, plumber, right through the trades. Northern Ireland has a top pool of talent and we've used as much of it as possible."

Those involved in the design of the station took inspiration from similar public transport hubs across other parts of the UK and wider Europe, but the exterior of Grand Central Station is very much a product of local history.

"The seven peaks, as the roof has come to be known came from the architects vision to present the folds of linen in the linen industry and mills that were once here," explained Gemma Thompson.

The communication, brand and stakeholder engagement manager added that the nearby Salt Water Square will become "a new public-realm space, a destination to come to and not just through."

She added that the name "comes fom the tidal nature of the waterways under Belfast" and that the location "is where the salt water met the fresh water, way, way back."

Help will be on hand on Sunday and into next week to help bus passengers navigate through what will eventually become the largest integrated transport hub on the island of Ireland.Catch up with the latest UTV Live on ITVX

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