Trains depart from Grand Central Station

Translink expects to start running trains at the new Grand Central station in Belfast in ten days.

The date for train services to begin at the £340 million station has been set for Sunday October 13th.

The railway line between Belfast and Lisburn has been closed for more than three months and replacement bus services have been put in place.

The new station opened to bus service five weeks ago, but the station remained closed until safety certification was obtained.

A new rail timetable will be available on the Translink website from October 7th.

Translink CEO Chris Conway said he was pleased that “good progress” had been made in the rail safety certification process.

“While our teams at Translink and the Department of Infrastructure will continue to work tirelessly to ensure the completion of this process, we are now taking appropriate steps to plan for the commencement of rail services from Grand Central Station on Sunday 13 October,” he said.

The existing Enterprise timetable of eight trains each way between Belfast and Dublin Monday to Saturday and seven trains each way on Sunday will operate from Grand Central Station from October 13.

Mr Conway said an hourly service between the cities would be introduced on October 29.

He said 15 cross-border services would leave Belfast every day, meaning a “massive boost for people, communities, businesses, the economy and the environment”.

The railway tracks in central Belfast have been redesigned to accommodate the new Grand Central Station.

The transport hub has been designed to combine bus and rail services under one roof in a state-of-the-art new complex.

Grand Central has 26 bus stops and eight train platforms.

Translink said it expects the new station to handle up to 20 million passenger journeys a year.

It will take 2025 for the entire development, including public realm works, to be completed.

The transport hub was built behind the former bus and train stations serving central Belfast – the Europe bus center and Great Victoria Street station, both of which are now closed.

While the hourly bus service between Belfast and Dublin will not begin until October 29th, some changes have already been made to the timetable.

These included new early morning services from Belfast at 06:00 and Dublin at 06:50.

The Newry-Belfast section of both services is currently operated by a replacement bus service.

The 6am service led to complaints from Dublin commuters traveling to the city who said it caused delays and cancellations of local services.

Iarnród Éireann has now apologized for the timetable changes and said services in the Dublin area would return to their old timetable.

The early morning Belfast-Dublin Enterprise service remains, but arrives at 08:23am instead of 08:16am, while the 07:50am train departs at 07:40am instead, allowing more local trains to Dublin at the busiest times reach.