Belfast Grand Central Station

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Year

2024

Duration

4 years

Cost

£340m

Location

Northern Ireland

Project achievements

Connected communities

Largest integrated transport hub on the island of Ireland

Area improved

Part of the wider Weaver’s Cross development

Greater accessibility

Features internal tactile paths linking entrances, platforms, bus stands and more

Build the largest integrated transport hub on the island of Ireland

The Belfast Grand Central Station in Northern Ireland was built to replace Europa Bus Centre and Great Victoria Street Station.

The old stations had become cramped and a 50% increase in passenger numbers was expected in the near future.

The new station can now handle 20 million passenger journeys every year, rising from the 12 million capacity of the two pre-existing stations combined.

It features 26 bus stands, eight rail platforms, and 300 cycling parking spaces, making it the largest integrated transport hub on the island of Ireland.

The first bus departed from the station on 8 September 2024. It was headed to Dublin.

The first rail service, on the Belfast to Lisburn line, took off on 13 October 2024.

The station is part of the wider Weaver’s Cross development, a 100,000m² site made up of leisure, residential and commercial facilities.

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Take a tour of Belfast Grand Central Station

With 26 bus stands and eight rail platforms, it's built to handle 20 million passenger journeys every year.

Take a virtual tour of the station to explore!

Did you know …

In its first year, the station welcomed over 8 million people.
It contributed over 4 million more journeys across the public transport network.
The station has hosted plenty of community engagement activities since, including turning the mezzanine into a golf fan zone to celebrate The Open Championship returning to Northern Ireland in July 2025.

How was Belfast Grand Central Station built?

Enabling works started in 2020, which included clearing the site of old buildings, diverting a culvert and utilities, replacing a pedestrian bridge and creating site offices.

Then, the steel Busway Bridge was built, which included three approach ramps. Given the ground conditions, these works involved considerable piling.

The main works included the multimodal station building, rail platforms and bus stands.

The building has a steel frame with a distinctive sawtooth roof profile. The principal façades are glazed, with reinforced concrete spine walls forming the other façades and providing stability.

The railway works were a complex part of the project, which required works beyond site to connect the new station to the existing signalling.

Digital technology played a key role, with BIM managers an integral part of the project team. They worked to coordinate designs and detect clashes.

Accessibility was a big focus of the project design.

The station features internal tactile wayfinding that covers the routes to the entrances/exits, rail platforms, bus stands, customer information desks, ticket vending machines, changing places, accessible toilets and more.

An app was also developed to support blind and partially sighted passengers to navigate the station independently.

There is also a sensory nook, a fully certified autism resource.

Hearing Loops, assistive listening devices, are available throughout the station.

Difference the project has made

As well as providing more inclusive and sustainable means of travel for Northern Ireland, the project team took great care to deliver additional social value.

Translink said it provided 78 placements and apprenticeships, 197 job opportunities for under-represented groups, 745 hours of community volunteering, 71 health and wellbeing initiatives, and much more.

Examples of the community projects the team delivered include:

School improvement projects
Litter pick-ups and clean-up days
Funding local sports clubs
Meals on Wheels for pensioners and vulnerable groups
Volunteering with social enterprises and charities

These activities contributed to the project taking home the Social Value & Community Impact Award at the 2025 British Construction and Infrastructure Awards.