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Belfast Grand Central Station opened earlier this month. File photo by Declan Roughan, Press Eye
Long periods of political paralysis mean that living here can sometimes feel like you’re a player who has just been tagged in the game ‘stuck in the mud’ - frozen and waiting to be freed.
Against this backdrop, it is always important to celebrate any progressive change when we see it.
Major change has come in the partial opening of Grand Central Station in Belfast.
Since its inception back in 2014, the project represents one of the largest investments in Northern Ireland’s public transport infrastructure. Its design and planning have modernised Belfast’s transport network, futureproofing the city for decades to come.
As one of the largest bus stations in the UK, thousands of passengers will pass through its doors every day.
The station is only open for buses at this stage, but once trains are fully operational, the hub is anticipated to attract 20 million commuters a year and will be the largest integrated transport facility on the island of Ireland.
With transport the second highest greenhouse gas emitter, accounting for 18.1% of Northern Ireland's emissions, it is welcome to see positive moves to provide good quality transport for commuters in Northern Ireland.
There are no specific targets for transport in the Northern Ireland Climate Change Act, but the UK’s Climate Change Committee advised that the transport sector in Northern Ireland should decrease emissions by 29% by 2030.
Of course, Grand Central Station is only part of a larger solution. More journeys on foot or by bike are needed to decrease carbon emissions.
Car dependency is also extremely high in Northern Ireland, and it will take huge improvements to public transport in rural areas, particularly the west, to get more cars off the road. We also need better public transport services, including more regular services on busy routes, particularly at night and on weekends, and greater efficiency.
Rosalind Skillen
To this end, once fully operational, measuring the subtle nuances of the trips that people make to Grand Central Station will paint a picture of how all the travel in Northern Ireland fits together.
Details like: how do people get to the station? If they take two buses, did they walk from one bus to the other? Was the first and last mile of their journey on foot or in a car?
Joining the dots of the transport landscape in Northern Ireland could help to address connectivity issues and prevent parts of the north from being left behind.
No doubt the station will make Belfast better for commuters and tourists.
And in Northern Ireland, where we’re used to strategies going unpublished and targets unmet, isn’t it fantastic to see some investment and ambition for public transport?