Dublin to Belfast

There is currently a bus replacement service while the final works for the new Belfast Grand Central Station are completed. They do not yet have a confirmed opening date, hence why Irish Rail still has "autumn" as the resumption date. I believe that Translink are just awaiting certification of the signalling at the new station and it's approach, so there should be confirmation of an opening date pretty soon.

Grand Central is opening this Sunday, Sep 8 for buses only so presumably all major work is done and when the signalling is signed off it should be ready to open for trains as well.

Still no confirmation from Translink as to when the station will be open. My earwigs in Norn Iron tell me that a sub contractor made a boo-boo and that it will take time to rectify fully. As a result the powers that be are not able to issue a safety certificate for loco hauled traffic and that there are no dates confirmable for Enterprise traffic into the new facility. It's unsure if there will even be a DMU service either but for now it remains unopened to railway traffic.

Out of interest does anyone know what rolling stock will be used to increase the Enterprise frequency to hourly? There are currently 3 enterprise train sets and a handful of spare carriages. That could be turned into 4 slightly shorter trainsets with no spares although that doesn't sound ideal from a maintenance point of view. I think more than 4 would be needed for hourly.

Thank you, very detailed. Will these sets receive enterprise livery or just retain the IE and NIR liveries? Will the NIR unit have first class fitted or shall those service go without?

Trains run to Portadown

Due to the nature of the road network (the railway line is indirect) its faster to transfer passengers at Newry to/from Belfast

There is a triangular junction at Great Victoria Street/Grand Central. The signalling and track is being redone so its a no go area currently so no way to reach Lanyon Place unless you want to go long way around via Antrim

My understanding is that the changeover to the new Grand Central Station is happening this Sunday and services will be running through to Belfast again. With this finally happening, I think there are a lot of tweaks to happening on the booking system and confirm train sets etc.

My guess is that the timetable resourcing people in Connolly are completely flat out sorting out the mess of the timetable, that some of these "less important" matters of seat allocations are taking a back foot.

You will be completely fine on the 08:00 next Tuesday and will have plenty of space. The 18:00 will be busier, but still fine. Everyone will be in the same situation. This will be temporary while they bring in the new improved service.

Both websites are selling tickets for the hourly service from 29th Oct

public holiday monday Dublin-Belfast have a bus transfer from Connolly to Dundalk, then train to Belfast. Annoying!

I'd usually get first class as a solo-traveller and get the single seat so no one beside me as it gives more room and is comfortable. You have the table service for food, which is alright.

You're paying double for a little bit more comfort for a 2 hour train journey. I'm heading up next month with a group of friends and went economy, which I don't mind either