NORTHERN IRELAND RAILWAYS (NIR)

TRAFFIC AND TRACTION: On March 22, GM No. 8113 ran light engine to Ballymena Infrastructure Depot from Belfast York Road to where it returned later the same day hauling a ballast hopper wagon that required wheel reprofiling. The trip ended a significant period of inactivity for the locomotive, but Nos. 8111 and 8112 remained inactive. The popular Belfast Lanyon Place-Portrush ‘Family Trains’, which serve selected stations, ran again this year on Easter Monday and Tuesday, April 1 and 2. Diesel multiple unit Nos. 4010 and 4011 worked the 09.50 exLanyon Place and 18.30 return on April 1. Two six-car 4000 Class DMUs were unavailable during the period under review which saw the use of three-car units on the Londonderry line as well as peak-hour services on the Larne line that normally merit a six-car unit.

On April 11, Nos. 4011 and 3016/3018 were noted on

Londonderry line services. One of the unserviceable units, No. 4015, which was sidelined following a fire onboard while working the 15.38 Londonderry to Belfast Great Victoria Street (GVS) on January 22, (RE335) incurred more extensive damage than was initially known. A driveshaft on car No. 4415 broke with debris causing damage to intermediate cars Nos. 4715 and 4815, including the fuel tank on the latter being punctured, causing the fire which was extinguished by the driver. No staff or passengers were injured. Iarnród Éireann GM No. 207 and Mk.3/De Dietrich set Driving Brake First Open (DBFO) No. 9001 ran empty from Lanyon Place to York Road for attention on April 11, after working the 09.30 from Dublin Connolly. A pair of three-car units was reported to have been used for the return service, 12.35 ex-Lanyon Place.

INFRASTRUCTURE: The centenary of the opening of the

Bann Bridge at Coleraine by the LMS (Northern Counties Committee) was marked by Translink on March 22, with a film of the structure broadcast on the media and special news reports. Total possessions were imposed in the Belfast Lanyon Place Lisburn/ Portadown corridor (including Great Victoria Street [GVS]) during the period March 30 to April 7 to facilitate trackwork, signalling renewals and platform extensions. The first new pointwork on the existing down line between Central Junction and Westlink Junction has now been installed. This facing turnout will connect into the throat of the new Belfast Grand Central Station when preparatory formation work in that area is completed. It will form part of a third line and both existing up and down lines between these two junctions have also been partially relaid. At Adelaide Halt both up and down concrete platform extensions at the Lisburn end have been installed while the new down platform at

Derriaghy was opened on March 25, with the new extension to the up platform also opened. The former down platform has been demolished. At Lisburn the new points and crossings and signalling at the Portadown end have been commissioned with the partially relayed down loop platform line (P3) now able to accommodate six-car trains, while the previously underused down outer loop has been partially relayed and upgraded and signalled for bi-directional running, meaning that all four through lines at Lisburn now feature this operational asset. While Platform 3 and the mainline/branch turnouts and crossovers are restricted to 15mph or 25mph, the outer loop is restricted to 5mph. While a short section of the Antrim branch has been relaid and the signals at Lisburn that apply to running to and from it have been commissioned, the signal heads of those in the Knockmore area of the branch remain covered and the temporary buffer stop on the curve there has been removed. Elsewhere, a new LED banner repeater signal on the up line at Lambeg displays a totally green background when the signal is “off”.

NEWS: On April 16, the Department for Infrastructure of the Northern Ireland Assembly stated that the cost of building Belfast Grand Central station had been revised to £340 million. The reason for the substantial increase, from the original £200m when the project was approved in 2020, was given as inflation and cost of materials. The project will be completed, however, with the Northern Ireland Executive reporting a significant shortfall in its budget, it is anticipated that future spending on public transport may be adversely affected. Two blockades have been planned for 2024 in connection with the closure of Great Victoria Street station (GVS) and the commissioning later of Belfast Grand Central station and associated trackwork and signalling. The first blockade is from May 11 to July 5, during which GVS will close and Londonderry, Bangor and Larne line trains will start from and terminate at Lanyon Place. The second will be from July 6 to August 12 when a total possession of the Lanyon Place to Lisburn section will be in force. Bustitution will be in operation with “Enterprise” trains running between Portadown and Connolly.

CROSS BORDER: It was announced on April 9, that the Northern Ireland Executive and Irish government had received European Union funding of £141.9 million (€165m) for the acquisition of eight new trains for the ‘Enterprise’ service. The total value of the contract is £565,423,800 (RE331). It is anticipated that the successful bidder for the trains will be announced later this year.