Some hospital workers are ditching the train and taking the car to work following the removal of two stations from the Portadown to Belfast line after the opening of the £340m Grand Central Station.
Trains coming from Portadown and Lisburn now no longer stop at the City Hospital and Botanic train stations and are only included on the Bangor line, since trains started operating from the new Grand Central Station on Sunday.
Those wanting to travel from the Portadown line to City Hospital and Botanic, including from stations such as Moira, Lisburn and Dunmurry, will now have to disembark at Grand Central Station and transfer to a separate train.
Frustrated hospital staff, including those working in the specialist Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital, have said they will now drive to work instead of using public transport.
Christopher Campbell and his wife both work as radiographers at the City Hospital and travel from Portadown, but will now take the car due to the changes.
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“The simple answer is it’s meant I haven’t gone back to the train this week because it just takes too long,” Christopher told The Irish News.
“We would have to switch at Grand Central which means that you’re then banking on everything running on time.
“I finish work at 5pm and the next train from City Hospital to Grand Central is at 5:15. That means I have six minutes to get from there to get to the next train at Grand Central to get to Portadown.
“The chances of making that connection aren’t great and the next train to Portadown is then 5:41 so it just starts to get too late. Our child’s nursery closes at 6pm so I need to make it back before then.
“It has basically left me with no realistic option other than to drive unfortunately.”
Earlier this week Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd encouraged the public to try public transport as a way of avoiding increased traffic congestion in Belfast. A DfI spokesperson said the issue was an “operational” one for Translink.
A spokesperson for Translink explained that the new Grand Central Station was designed to be a “terminus” and that the changes have given more “robustness” to timetables.
“As the main terminus station for Belfast, Grand Central Station will offer increased connectivity and integration with the wider public transport network for connections across Northern Ireland, ROI and beyond. It will also increase reliability and efficiency of services across the network.
“All former through services will also now require a change and passengers should allow extra time to interchange to another bus or rail service if continuing on a different route.
“We appreciate that these changes may affect some people differently and we are looking at ways to make it as seamless as possible.
“We understand that it will mean a small delay and an extra change for some passengers but we would encourage them to give it a go.”
by kharma45
25 comments
>“We understand that it will mean a small delay and an extra change for some passengers but we would encourage them to give it a go.”
AKA “we know we’ve fucked up and have made your life more difficult but fucking get on with it and stop yapping ye heures”
It’s part of Translink’s new slogan “because you have no other choice”.
According to the timetables there should only be a quick change and no real delay to carry on to botanic, city hospital but the reality is the usual translink shite – confusion over which platforms trains are leaving from and long delays. Farce.
John O’Dowd never struck me as a man with a death wish but my god sounds he’s on a mission to get lynched by angry commuters.
Can’t believe I’m defending Translink … but you already had to change at GVS to get the train that stopped at City Hospital and Botanic anyway, so what’s the difference?
Shitshow but hey look at our new shiny Station!
This makes the case for the circle line idea with trains every 15 minutes both clockwise and counter clockwise and stopping at Aldergrove airport.
> Grand Central Station will offer increased connectivity and integration with the wider public transport network for connections across Northern Ireland, ROI and beyond
This is a lie. There’s less connectivity.
The Antrim, Ballymena, Coleraine buses used to terminate in the Europa Bus Station. Now the closest we can get to Grand Central is Laganside Bus Centre. Only a short 21 minute walk according to Google.
And why does Laganside Bus Centre even still exist with the fancy new station?
Translink must be the shittest transport service in existence. What the fuck have they been doing for the past two decades?
When the head line is “2 stations dropped from line” and I read the first paragraph, I gave up. Click bate shite journalism. How did we get such a long story from person needs to change train at grand central and if their train is running late, they need to wait on the next one.
The removal of the direct train and the required changes added about an hour to my journey today.
They’ve spent a fortune on a shiny new station with less connectivity, longer journey times and increased fare.
I’m taking the car tomorrow.
Only Translink could invest such a huge amount in the rail system only to make it worse
As someone from the North west it’s hard to feel sorry for someone from Portadown with their trains, motorway and regular bus services to Belfast. We’ve the 212 and that’s about it
Don’t blame them one bit
It’s the perfect example of putting the cart before the horse.
Grand Central station is phenomenal. It is clean, large, easy to navigate through and feels like a world class transport hub.
All of which is utterly pointless because the trains don’t run any more often than they ever did, stop at fewer stations than before, and the bus network remains a confusing mess. All of this and the ticket prices are obscene, making it cheaper to take the car and park.
https://preview.redd.it/phxgtf6s76vd1.png?width=943&format=png&auto=webp&s=4ec82183fc38013daeaf0518703a14d4adb54cf3
They have, effectively, made this part of the network superfluous.
Wait we have less of a network now??!
I would be in the same boat but I would be getting off at Lanyon. Makes it even worse when you have mandatory requirement to do your job in a shithole office in a city centre office that you can do from home.
It’s not even central!!!!!
Tranzlink; The People’s Commissariat for Railways.
“Pay more, get less”.
Reading this shitshow from a Dublin – Belfast train that has been stopped on the line for over an hour (so far) at 22.15 at night…
They’re nothing if not consistent
Big shiny waste of money building to do absolutely nothing. To do absolutely less than before in fact.
Was chatting to some folks earlier who said the train lines being split is because the portadown line is fully set up to run 6 car trains, whereas Bangor line still has some stations with short platforms. Not sure if it’s true or why it wasn’t an issue before though!
i met a middle manager from translink some years ago and he was the most obstinate, thick-headed, recalcitrant and rebarbative fellow I’ve met. He was completely lacking in empathy, or conversation skills. He seemed to have no capacity for analytical or strategic thought. The worst kind of ignorant, pug-headed Ulsterman. I seriously hope he didn’t represent the general culture of the company!
And their new app which they no doubt spent lots of money on can’t even handle a journey with the transfer. Most of the the timetable it just tells you to walk from GCS.