Bangor Bus and Rail Centre is a combined rail and bus interchange which serves the city of Bangor in County Down, Northern Ireland.

Bangor
NI Railways
Bangor Combined Railway and bus station was formally opened in 2001.
General information
LocationBangor
Northern Ireland
Coordinates54°39′31″N 5°40′21″W / 54.6585°N 5.6725°W / 54.6585; -5.6725
Owned byNI Railways
Operated byNI Railways
Line(s)Bangor
Platforms3
Tracks3 (At Platforms)
4 (In Total)
Construction
Structure typeAt-grade
Key dates
1865Original station opened
2001Current station opened
Passengers
2022/231.301 million [1]
2023/24Increase 1.635 million [2]
Route map

(Click to expand)
Year
closed
Great Victoria Street
2024
Belfast Grand Central Belfast-Derry railway line Belfast-Dublin railway line Belfast-Larne railway line Belfast-Newry railway line Bus interchange
City Hospital Belfast-Derry railway line Belfast-Larne railway line
Botanic Tunnel
Botanic Belfast-Derry railway line Belfast-Larne railway line
Lanyon Place Belfast-Derry railway line Belfast-Larne railway line
Titanic Quarter
(Bridge End)
Queen's Quay
1976
1950
Ballymacarrett
1976
Victoria Park
1981
Sydenham Belfast City Airport
Tillysburn
1945
Kinnegar
1957
Holywood
Marino
Cultra
Craigavad
1957
Seahill
Helen's Bay
Crawfordsburn
1997
Carnalea
Bangor West
Bangor Bus interchange
Location
Bangor is located in Northern Ireland
Bangor
Bangor
Location within Northern Ireland
Bangor is located in island of Ireland
Bangor
Bangor
Location on the Island of Ireland
Map

The station in its current form was built in the year 2000 to celebrate the new millennium.

History

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The station was opened by the Belfast and County Down Railway on 1 May 1865 and closed to goods traffic on 24 April 1950.

Daylight saving time was introduced by the Summer Time Act 1916 and implemented on 1 October 1916 as GMT plus one hour and Dublin Mean Time plus one hour. However, Dublin Mean Time (used by the railways) had a disparity of twenty-five minutes with Greenwich Mean Time, which meant that the Bangor Railway Station Clock was to be put back only thirty-five minutes instead of one hour. An additional complication was that the clocks in Belfast and Bangor were twenty-three minutes and thirty-nine seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time (not twenty-five minutes as in Dublin), so the final adjustment was thirty-six minutes and twenty-one seconds. The change to the time displayed on the Bangor Station Clock was not welcomed by commuters.[3]

The station buildings were originally erected in 1864–1865 to designs by the architect Charles Lanyon.[4] Following World War 2, however, refurbishments made by the Ulster Transport Authority to this Italianate structure damaged the original Lanyon-designed building, stripping it of much of its original brickwork. The company then rebuilt the building, before it was reconstructed again to a new design in 2000.

In the year 2000, then-mayor of Bangor Alan Chambers sealed a time capsule near the entrance of the station which is to be opened in 2100.[citation needed]

Services

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Mondays to Saturdays there is a half-hourly service toward Belfast Grand Central. Extra services operate at peak times and reduce to hourly operation in the evenings. Certain peak-time services from this station operate as expresses between Bangor West and Holywood or Belfast Lanyon Place.

On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Belfast City Centre and onward.

Preceding station     Northern Ireland Railways   Following station
Bangor West   Northern Ireland Railways
Belfast-Bangor Line
  Terminus

References

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  1. ^ "FOI1317 NIR Footfall 2223.xlsx". www.whatdotheyknow.com. 17 April 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  2. ^ "FOI Footfall 2023 2024 figures PDF.pdf". www.whatdotheyknow.com. 7 May 2024. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
  3. ^ Elder, Ellen Hanna. "An Idea Whose Time Had Come." Your Place & Mine. BBC Northern Ireland. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  4. ^ "Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon - Works". Dictionary of Irish Architects. Irish Architectural Archive. Retrieved 20 September 2024.