Belfast Grand Central Station, at Weavers Cross, is situated in the heart of the city. The eight hectare site will be home to a modern high capacity transport hub (developed on the site of the existing Europa buscentre and Great Victoria Street train station), along with impressive mixed-use development proposals.
This flagship project, is prioritised by the NI Executive, and has been developed in the context of the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) Regional Development Strategy 2035 and the draft NI Executive Programme for Government. There is recognition that public transport has a key role to play in developing competitive cities and regions and is important for a successful economy, promoting social inclusion, health, education and improving the environment.
The draft Programme for Government (PfG) has identified a number of strategic outcomes which set out the ambition for Northern Ireland society. Providing a high quality public transport system impacts on many of the PfG outcomes and directly links to the outcome ‘We connect people and opportunities through our infrastructure’. One of the key indicators for this outcome is to ‘Increase the use of public transport and active travel’.
The wider Weavers Cross development is a transport led regeneration project supporting the Belfast City Council’s Agenda, a new vision for Belfast in 2035, setting out the ambition to attract 50,000 new jobs and £1bn investment to regeneration projects in the city. The impressive Belfast Transport Hub at the heart of this, will be a catalyst for the regeneration of this area of Belfast and will be an important gateway to Belfast as a modern, confident and progressive city, stimulating economic opportunities for the city and Northern Ireland.
