Category: IH News 2024

With the opening of Grand Central Station in Belfast, this has led to a downgrade in one section of railway, that from Belfast Central Junction to City Junction.

Prior to the closure of Great Victoria Street, trains to/from Dublin ran to Lanyon Place via the old Belfast Central Railway line, departing at Central Junction. However, all internal trains ran via Great Victoria Street, using the Blythfield Curve to do so.

With the transfer of Dublin trains to Grand Central Station, there is no scheduled service between Central Junction (A) and City Junction (B) and the double track has been reduced to single track.

I’m in two minds about this one.

The BBC reports that the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society are intending to take Translink to court in a bid to stop the demolition of the Boyne Bridge in Belfast as part of the latter’s plans to develop the area immediately adjacent to the new Grand Central Station.

Whilst part of me sees Translink mimicking CIE’s status as a property development company with the inconvenience of a public transport network attached, I can’t necessarily see that the bridge requires preservation and if it is worthy of preservation, does it absolutely need to be preserved at that location?

Having already opened for bus traffic, it has been reported that Belfast Grand Central Station is due to open for rail traffic on 13th October 2024.

Whilst I haven’t been up in Belfast in the last few months, I have looked at the track layout shown on OpenStreetmap and it looks like Westlink Junction is gone (where the Blythefield Curve joined the line from Central Junction to Great Victoria Street), instead, the line will curve around and run parallel to the Dublin line.

Access to/from the 8 platforms (4 island platforms) will be achieved by a series of crossovers.

Update 14 October 2024. Well, whoever updated OSM got it wrong. There is a junction at Westlink Junction and the necessary crossovers are in place just north of this to facilitate all platform access.

RTE reports that H&W Group Holdings PLC is to enter into administration, due to the company being insolvent.

As a technicality, the company that is entering administration is the holding company, which holds the shares in the 4 shipyards under its control and the shipyard in Belfast is not entering administration, nor are the other 3 shipyards the company owns.

The Connacht Tribune reports on the absence of public facilities at or near the Meelick Weir walkway.

Whilst complimentary about Waterways Ireland’s part in restoring the walkway along the weir, they note that WI have not provided any facilities for those caught short.

When I was in Clones recently, looking at the new addition to the waterways of Ireland, I did notice the toilet block in Clones which was built as part of this. I am at a loss to understand why similar could not be provided at or near the Meelick Weir, especially as there does appear to be a control building at Meelick Lock:

The Southern Star reports on Cork TD Michael Collins calling for an upcoming internal Irish Lights celebration of 120 years of Fastnet Lighthouse to be held in Cork and not Dublin, given that Cork is where Fastnet Lighthouse is.

Whilst I can see his argument (and as a Dubliner, I can see that this event does look like them up in Dublin not considering anything beyond the Pale), given that this is an internal Irish Lights event, staff would need to be compensated for travel to/from Cork. I would not consider such expenditure to be appropriate.

Of course, there is nothing to stop Cork County Council sponsoring an event to commemorate this milestone.