Transport hub features a concourse ten times larger than the one it replaces
John McAslan & Partners’ £200m Belfast Grand Central station has opened for passenger services.
The eight hectare rail and bus hub is now the largest integrated transport facility on the island of Ireland and features a concourse more than ten times larger than the one which it replaces.
Expected to serve around 20 million passengers a year, the building aims to significantly improve connectivity across the island.
The mixed-use scheme is based around a main 7,500sq m step-free concourse, with rail platforms on one side and bus services on the other.
It is also includes 2,000sq m of retail space and is envisaged as a centre for shopping, diing and socialising.
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The station’s design draws inspiration from the former linen mills and oversized, repeating forms of local industrial architecture with an exaggerated sawtooth roof.
It also features an exposed truss structure which references the site’s original Great Victoria Street station that was demolished in the 1970s.
John McAslan & Partners, which designed the transformation of London’s King’s Cross station, worked on the scheme in the Northern Irish capital in collaboration with Arup and Juno as part of a wider regeneration of Belfast city centre.
Ross Harrisson, associate director at John McAslan & Partners, said the station had “delivered a customer-centred station on time, a real achievement for transport projects.”
“More than that, it delivers a civic function–providing a forward-looking first impression of Belfast that is symbolic of the changing direction of the city,” he added.
“Globally, modern public transport hubs are increasingly used in this way, and it is timely that Belfast should unveil this gateway on the cusp of Ireland’s wider rail review.”
The practice opened an office in Belfast, a short walk from the station site, in 2021.
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