Translink to announce Grand Central train station opening 'very soon'

Translink's CEO Chris Conway has said that the transport operator is hoping to make an announcement on the reopening of the train line between Lisburn and Belfast and the introduction of train services to the new Grand Central Station "very soon".

Speaking on the BBC's Nolan Show, Mr Conway said that the building work on the station is complete and that they are working with the safety authority to get the station fully operational as soon as possible.

"Everyone will want to make sure that everything we do is safe so it is important that we do everything with due diligence. We hope to be able to announce a date for opening very soon" he told the programme.

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"When we talk about construction, we talk about the railway system. Most people come in and see the station but there is a railway system which sits in behind that. We have training going on at the minute and have trains on that network with staff to do training. We are nearly complete on the training and I hope that we will be able to announce something very soon in collaboration with the safety authority."

When how soon he could make an announcement, Chris Conway said that they want to make sure things are done "properly and diligently" so he couldn't give a firm date.

"We are working with the safety authority. There is always a bit of toing and froing on that and it is important that they have the time to do that process correctly," he said.

Responding to criticism about traffic management around the new station, Chris Conway thanked people for their patience and said that it is about a "modal shift".

"Short-term disruption is inevitable as we go through that process. We have been working very closely with DfI and the road service to make sure that anything we do on a temporary crossing basis, anything we do to ensure safe access for our passengers is properly managed. We will continue to manage that and take feedback on that as we go forward.

"The wider issue is that Belfast is a compact city, it has a finite road space and we know that congestion has been increasing over the years. When anything happens in Belfast, it causes major disruption and when we look at infrastructure investment, there is infrastructure investment coming for road surfacing, for water, for gas... we have got to start thinking as a society how to best use our city, how we best use our road space. We need to think about moving people not just cars."

Chris added that there is a lot of public realm works which will require the closure of Durham Street later this year.

"We have put lots of temporary measures in place, we have put some additional temporary bus lanes up Great Victoria Street to try and alleviate traffic there and we have lots of modelling going on to see how that will be impacted."

On the issue of drop-offs at the station which has led to criticism from people with disabilities, Chris Conway said that as a temporary solution, they have a drop-off at St Andrew's Square and that he is due to meet representatives from the disability sector next week.

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