Normally, you’d imagine that the redevelopment of a railway station, complete with ample, secure cycle parking, would be a cause for celebration, another step in the right direction for active travel and public transport, encouraging people out of their cars with carefully planned, considered, joined-up infrastructure.
But that’s not the case in Belfast.
This week, the brand-new York Street Station (a redevelopment of the old Yorkgate Station) was launched in north Belfast. Translink, Northern Ireland’s public transport provider, says the revamped station “has been designed to be fully inclusive for all, will be a catalyst for further investment in the area, and encourage modal shift towards public transport”.
The station also includes, in a rarity for Belfast, a large and secure bike parking station. Translink says these cycle parking facilities will provide storage for people using the station’s “connections to existing cycle infrastructure”, while also claiming that the station has been designed with “consideration to any potential future cycle infrastructure developments in the area”.
Not so fast. While all that sounds impressive on paper, in reality any cyclist hoping to store their bike at the station has to navigate one of Belfast’s, ahem, interesting junctions for cyclists:
Fun.
“It is great that we have a fantastic new bike park at the new York Street station. But how many will use it when the surrounding bike infrastructure is appalling? Take a look at the junction it sits next to,” Belfast-based academic and cycling campaigner Dom Bryan wrote on Twitter following the station’s opening.
“There has been no development of protected cycling infrastructure in north Belfast in a decade. They started painting a bike route on the Limestone Road and then took it away!” Dom told road.cc this morning, referencing the highly-criticised lethargy surrounding Northern Ireland’s cycling policies.
“The government encourage active travel but the roads in north Belfast are just too dangerous. The only work has been from parents at schools in Cliftonville and Cavehill, who organise bike buses.”
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Dom wasn’t the only one critical of the lack of joined-up thinking at York Street Station, with the new cycle parking described by one local cyclist as “how to make it look like you are doing something, whilst doing nothing at all”.
Responding to Dom’s tweet, Sustrans said: “The only safe access by bike, other than on footpaths, is from Clarendon dock direction on NCN Route 93 through the underpass. Cycling from Ulster University’s campus out of town or from New Lodge is not for the faint-hearted.”
“You just have to cross 28 car lanes, including the Westlink, to get to/from Ulster University,” added Circle Line Belfast. Easy, eh?
“The whole area is incredibly dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians right now,” added NI Planner.
“Depressing,” said Áine. “Cycling with our kids from Cavehill down Limestone along the Shore Road, littered with glass and rubble, never mind overgrown with shrubs. There is nothing easy about cycling safely from north Belfast.”
“I’m an experienced cyclist but have stopped cycling from Castle area to QUB as it’s just too dangerous,” added Dermot. “Had too many near misses that were beyond my control.”
“I doubt this will ever be heavily used because of where it is,” wrote Mark, while Neal described the junction as a “disgrace” that means “nobody will use that bike shelter”.
“Love to see new bike storage going in, but if it is not connected to safe cycling infrastructure, it will lay empty,” the North Belfast Cycle Campaign agreed. “A Cavehill/Limestone Road cycle lane with a protected lane on York Street would be a great start.”
Even some local politicians were getting involved in calling for better cycling infrastructure in the city’s long-neglected Sailortown area.
“New station or old station, you have to dice with death as you cross major roads to make pedestrian progress anywhere,” said Alliance Party MLA Stewart Dickson. “It’s a shame there’s no joined-up thinking.”
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“Belfast had less than two miles of segregated cycle lanes in 2019. Still the same,” wrote Green Party NI MLA Mal O’Hara.
“Transport powers are controlled by the Department of Infrastructure, despite some of us arguing they should be devolved like every other city our size in Western Europe.”
Thought at least Brandon decided to put a bit of a positive spin on things.
“The nice bike shed is reward for having survived the journey to the station after navigating the patchy and mainly non-existent bike lanes in Belfast,” he wrote.
The way things are going in Northern Ireland, the Department of Infrastructure might chalk that up as a win…