Belfast Great Victoria Street railway station

Infobox NI station
name = Belfast Great Victoria Street

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locale = Great Victoria Street, Belfast
borough = Belfast City Council
years = 1839
1976
1995
events = Original station opened
Closed
Current station opened
platforms = 4
usage0405 =

Belfast Great Victoria Street serves the city centre of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The station is the second major station in the city, after Belfast Central. It is located near Great Victoria Street, one of Belfast's premier commercial zones, and Sandy Row.

Ironically, it is in a more central position than Belfast Central. The Europa Hotel, Grand Opera House and Crown Liquor Saloon are all nearby.

The first station, named "Belfast", was opened on 12 August 1839. "Victoria Street" was added to its name in 1852, and finally the "Great" prefix was added in 1856. This was the first railway terminus to be built in Belfast and it became an important station for the city. A new station building was constructed in 1848. The station then served as the Belfast terminus of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland), which included later acting as the Belfast terminus of the "Enterprise".

This lasted until 1976 when the station was closed as part of a scheme to connect the three mainline railways running into Belfast, and all services were moved to Belfast Central, which opened that same year. The Great Northern Tower now stands on the site of the old station building. The current Great Victoria Street Station is located just yards away from the previous one. It was opened in September 1995.cite web | title= Great Victoria Street Station1 | work= BBC NI| url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/topics/transport/railway_journeys6.shtml| accessdate=2008-05-08]

Great Victoria Street is at the nexus of the suburban rail network in Northern Ireland, with the lines to Newry, Derry, Bangor and Larne all terminating there.

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References