Belfast: ‘It took me 50 minutes to travel a mile’

Some people in Belfast say the new Grand Central Station is causing traffic delays for people coming into the city.

One woman said there was “constant congestion” around the new station since it had been built.

Translink’s chief executive Chris Conway said the company was working to ensure the work it was carrying out was properly managed, but added that some disruption was inevitable.

And more major roadworks are to begin on Wednesday, as resurfacing work – scheduled to take five months – starts on the Sydenham Bypass in east Belfast.

BBC News NI spoke to some people about how increased traffic congestion is affecting their daily lives.

Jamie-Lee Peden, who is originally from Sandy Row, now travels there for work from Bangor.

She said the area around the station was now beset with “constant congestion” and she now has to go to work earlier so she can leave earlier and be able to collect her children from school.

“It’s been crazy, getting in and out,” she said.

“I did get stuck going through Sandy Row, which is about a mile, for about 45, 50 minutes.”

She told BBC News NI the increase in congestion was “100% since the station” opened.

“I’ve also noticed with the temporary traffic lights that they’re not in sync,” she said.

“So when there’s a back-up of traffic that needs to turn onto the Grosvenor Road, as that light turns green, these [other lights] are still red to let the pedestrians across, so the pedestrians are getting priority.”

Anna Karbowiak, who owns a shop in Sandy Row, said she often stays hours after closing to avoid heavy traffic.

“I finish at five o’clock, but I stay until seven o’clock sometimes because then I’m driving for just half an hour; if I leave here at five o’clock, I’m driving for one hour home because of the traffic,” she said.

“In the morning it’s the same situation when I go to work.

“On Sundays, it takes 12 minutes.”

Speaking to BBC News NI’s The Nolan Show, Mr Conway said Grand Central Station would benefit future generations and “some short-term disruption is inevitable”.

“What we’ve been doing is working very closely with DfI [Department for Infrastructure] and the Roads Service to make sure that anything we do on a temporary crossing basis, anything we do to ensure safe access for our passengers, is properly managed,” he said.

“We’ll continue to monitor that, take feedback and review our options as we go forward.

“Belfast is a compact city, it has got finite road space and we know that congestion has been increasing over the years and when anything happens in Belfast it causes major disruption.”

The new transport hub cost £340m and Translink estimates it will cater for up to 20 million journeys a year.

Wesley Johnston, a researcher with expertise on Northern Ireland’s roads, said complaints about congestion seemed to be specifically concentrated around the new station.

He said there were a number of issues around the hub which were affecting traffic.

“DfI has installed two new pedestrian crossings—one of them on Durham Street at Boyne Bridge and the other one’s on Grosvenor Road—and I think those are causing new delays,” he told BBC News NI.

“Those are necessary because there’s a lot more pedestrians having to walk across to the new station, so that’s why they’ve been installed.

“But because they’re new and are being well used, I think it’s causing a lot of new delays.

“DfI can look at the timings on those, but they don’t want to remove them because it wouldn’t be safe.”

He also said that reopening train links from Belfast to Lisburn and other stations to the south would help ease congestion, as commuters would be able to take the train again.

Mr Johnston said the lack of a dedicated drop-off point for taxis was also adding to disruption.

The bad news for drivers, he said, was that the situation was not going to improve any time soon.

“There will be further disruption when Boyne Bridge is demolished later this year, so that road will be closed completely at that point,” he said.

“If you pushed the DfI, I think they’d say we have a hierarchy of road users in the city centre, and private cars do come bottom of the heap, so they are prioritising pedestrians and public transport.

“There isn’t going to be a situation where they change everything so that the cars can move freely; it’s just not going to happen.”

A spokesperson for DfI said: “We understand that traffic delays are frustrating, and we encourage travellers to avoid the congestion by considering other sustainable and active modes of travel such as public transport, using the park and ride sites or by walking or cycling.

“If you do travel by car, please plan ahead and leave extra time for your journey.

“Records show that between 50 and 55% of traffic in Belfast has no destination in the city centre so please consider other routes where possible.”