Details of Translink rail closures across Northern Ireland on Easter weekend

A number of rail closures are in place this Easter weekend in Northern Ireland. Translink will be carrying out essential engineering work on the railway line between Belfast and Lisburn and Belfast and Portadown, with a line closure planned from Saturday, 30th March until Sunday, 7th April 2024 inclusively. Translink is encouraging passengers to plan their journey before they go using information on the website or Journey Planner and allow extra time for their journey.

There are different closure periods and train services along the southern corridor will be impacted. Timetable changes during Easter week: Saturday 30th March to Easter Tuesday 2nd April inclusive

Belfast Lanyon Place to Belfast Gt Victoria Street (GVS) to Portadown will be closed.
Botanic & City Hospital Stations will be closed.
Bus substitution services will run between Belfast Lanyon Place and Great Victoria Station approximately every 30 minutes.
Bus substitution services will operate instead of trains between Great Victoria Street and Portadown, as per the railway timetable.
The Enterprise service will operate from Portadown to Dublin, with Belfast customers transferred by bus between Belfast Lanyon Place and Newry train station.
Passengers for City Hospital / Botanic stations can use scheduled Metro/Ulsterbus services along the Lisburn Road.

Rail tickets will be accepted on scheduled bus services.

Wednesday 3 rd April to Sunday 7th April inclusive

Belfast Lanyon Place to Belfast Great Victoria Street (GVS) to Lisburn will be closed.
Botanic & City Hospital Stations will be closed.
Bus substitution services between Belfast Lanyon Place and GVS will operate every 30 minutes.
Bus substitution services between GVS and Lisburn will operate approximately every 10 minutes.
The Enterprise service will operate from Portadown to Dublin, with Belfast customers transferred by bus between Belfast Lanyon Place and Newry train station.
Passengers for City Hospital / Botanic stations can use scheduled Metro/Ulsterbus services along the Lisburn Road. Rail tickets will be accepted on scheduled bus services.

These works are essential to continue the process of connecting up the rail lines to the new Belfast Grand Central Station, set to be in passenger use by the end of the year. Explaining these works, Translink’s John Glass said: “Work on the new integrated transport facility is moving at pace.

“Once complete, this impressive high-quality facility will offer an enhanced user experience with a significant increase in capacity, doubling the number of rail platforms from four to eight and increasing bus stands to 26. “This will bring significant benefits to people travelling right across Northern Ireland and beyond. “Designed to be fully inclusive, up to 20 million passenger journeys can be accommodated making it the largest integrated transport facility on the island of Ireland.

“With reduced passenger numbers over the holiday period, we have carefully planned a range of travel options with bus substitution services in place to minimise the overall impact and ensure people can continue to make their journeys and access the city.” During this closure period, Translink will also be carrying out essential platform works at Adelaide and Derriaghy and complete signalling upgrades at Lisburn. A Saturday Rail Timetable will operate across the entire rail network during the week except Sunday which will be a normal Sunday timetable.

Passengers and residents seeking further details on this work, see www.translink.co.uk/bcgcs [2]

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References

^ Easter supermarket opening hours for Tesco, Asda and Marks and Spencer across Northern Ireland 2024 (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
^ www.translink.co.uk/bcgcs (www.translink.co.uk)
^ Click this link (chat.whatsapp.com)
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