44 The Proposed Belfast Central Station and Railways. 



35 feet from the rail level. The York Street subway will be 

 ventilated by cast-iron openings in the street, standing up to a 

 height of about 8 feet. These will be ornamental, and used as 

 safety islands for foot passengers on the street level. The in- 

 creased mileage that will be used by each railway, measuring 

 not from the point of junction with the present railways but from 

 the end of the present station into the centre of the new central 

 station will be — ^the Great Northern, about 500 yards ; the Belfast 

 and Northern Counties, about 1,720 yards ; the Belfast and 

 County Down, about 1,180 yards. About 1,233 yards of the 

 line running to the junction with the Belfast and Northern 

 Counties, and about 1,342 yards of that to the Belfast and 

 County Down, will be covered over. 



Mr. Lanyon went on to point out that the present passenger 

 traffic into and out from Belfast is about 5,500,000 persons per 

 annum, made up as follows : — The Great Northern Railway, 

 about 1,500,000; the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, 

 about 1,500,000 ; the Belfast and County Down Railway, about 

 2,500,000 ; which figures, at the end of three years, will, at the 

 same rate of increase as that of the past three years, stand at 

 about 6,600,000. The changes proposed to be made will, in his 

 opinion and in the opinion of those who are promoting the 

 undertaking, very largely increase the passenger traffic on all 

 the existing lines of railway, by means of the arrangements that 

 will be made in local and main line traffic. 



The lecturer then proceeded to describe the proposed new 

 central station and hotel. The new station will have a super- 

 ficial area of glass roofing of about \c\ acres, placed about 40 feet 

 above the level of the platforms, so that the light and ventila- 

 tion will be perfect. It will occupy the whole of Smithfield and 

 the ground lying between Smithfield, Mill Street, and College 

 Street, and from Queen Street in a westerly direction to a street 

 to be made in lieu of King Street, some 50 feet west of it. 

 There will be about 8,700 feet of ai-rival and departure platforms. 

 Each arrival platform will have its own cab rank, with easy 

 approaches to the surrounding streets. The station buildings 



