Trains and buses cancelled amid further disruption

Translink warned of further delays to bus services in and out of Belfast city centre due to traffic congestion on Friday evening.

Additionally, a number of rail services were cancelled from the new Grand Central Station due to "operational reasons".

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the transport operator said some bus services in and out of the city centre are experiencing delays of approximately 35 minutes.

"Apologies for any delay and inconvenience," it said.

The transport provider also issued warnings to commuters on Thursday evening as a result of heavy traffic in and out of Belfast city centre.

On the rail network, the 18:04 BST Portadown to Belfast Grand Central service was cancelled.

Translink said the 18:43 Belfast Grand Central to Lisburn service was also cancelled.

A number of other trains, including the Enterprise service between Belfast and Dublin, and the Bangor to Belfast line, faced delays.

"Due to operational reasons, we have disruption to train services this evening," Translink posted on X, adding a further apology for the inconvenience.

According to the Translink app, a number of bus services were also cancelled.

According to information provided by the DfI (Department for Infrastructure), the greater Belfast area traffic was busy on the following routes:

In a post on X at 16:11 BST, Translink said Metro services 7, 8 and 9 would "terminate at Bruce Street and operate outwards from Dublin Road until further notice due to heavy traffic conditions".

'Suffer from capacity issues'

In a statement earlier on Friday, the DfI said the road network around Belfast can "suffer from capacity issues at peak times".

It said that on Thursday afternoon, there were a number of collisions across the city, including an eight-vehicle crash on the M1 southbound between Broadway and Stockmans Lane.

This brought traffic to a standstill. The DfI said the crash resulted in long delays back long the M1 and Westlink and onto the M3 and M2.

"The recovery operation took quite some time and again traffic was brought to a standstill at peak rush hour," the DfI said.

During this recovery operation, another collision happened on the M3's Lagan Bridge east-bound. This caused delays for traffic approaching from the Westlink and M2.

"Both incidents occurred during the peak rush hour period and the time required to ensure that emergency services could attend, and the vehicles could be recovered also had a knock-on effect on some public transport services," the DfI said.

The Department said it understands that traffic delays are "frustrating" and urged commuters to consider using public transport.

'Major disruption'

On Friday, Hospitality Ulster and Retail NI called for a return of a pre-Christmas moratorium on city centre roadworks.

In a joint statement, the two organisations said the call "comes admist further traffic congestion in the city... causing major disruption".

The organisations' chief executives have written to the DfI to seek a meeting with Minister for Infrastructure John O'Dowd to discuss the possible move.

Colin Neill from Hospitality Ulster and Glyn Roberts from Retail NI said: "For weeks now we have seen bad traffic congestion in the city centre associated with the roadworks, but as seen yesterday, one accident can turn bad congestion into a complete standstill."

"If traffic and public transport congestion continues as is and worsens the closer, we get to Christmas, people simply won't come to the city centre."

Public urged to use public transport

Earlier this week, John O'Dowd, who oversees bus and rail services in Northern Ireland, urged commuters to consider public transport , instead of driving.

A year-long closure of Durham Street, a busy road in central Belfast, has led to fears of more congestion in the city.

O'Dowd had hoped the start of rail services on Sunday from the new Grand Central Station in the city would encourage more people to use public transport.

However, the redevelopment of the area surrounding the new station is blamed by many drivers for causing the traffic problems in the first place.