Transport
“Roads Service is already spending £30-50million upgrading roads in the area whether the stadium goes ahead or not. It isn’t an extra cost”
Tony Whitehead, SIB(1) 

The Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan (BMTP) and The Regional Strategic Transport Network Transport Plan (RSTNTP)(2) set out what will be needed and what is desired for transport in the Greater Belfast area. Both focus on the need for more integrated transport and for the need for people to have more travel options, e.g. walking and cycle routes.

What’s transport like to Belfast?
The M1, M2, M3, M5 and major ‘A roads’ all meet in central Belfast. All rail lines lead to Belfast. More bus routes facilitate Belfast than anywhere else in Northern Ireland. Two airports and the sea port also serve the city. Belfast truly is the transport hub for Northern Ireland.

And to the Maze?
The Maze was a good location for a prison. In a rural location, 3km from the nearest city, it lies beside the M1 but has no junction onto it. With no rail link (and none planned) it will rely on visitors coming by car or coach and the need for a junction to be added.

How much will transport upgrades cost?
Any junction will cost around £20million and is not included in the current Roads Service construction plans.(3) Tony Whitehead also said that a link road was to be constructed, which would enable greater access to the site from the North West. Again, this road is only dependent on private development in the area and “(private) developers will be responsible for funding the scheme either in full or in a very substantial part”.(4) This is estimated at £11.8million and the cost will have to be met by the developer.

For a stadium at the Maze then, additional road infrastructure will cost at least another £30million – is this to be added to the £85million that it is costing so far taking the cost beyond £115million? Roads Service is not spending this money already as Mr. Whitehead claimed. Also, these roads costs are only estimates at a 2003 level – the actual cost may be much higher by the time development starts in 2007.

In contrast, proposed locations in Belfast are already well served by road, rail and bus. The City Airport is 1km from the Titanic Quarter; 2km from Maysfield and Ormeau Park; and approximately 4km from the North Foreshore.

The Port of Belfast is even closer as are rail and bus interchanges. Any transport upgrades for Belfast already have budgets allocated, including the widening of the Sydenham Bypass to three lanes in either direction, making that site even more plausible.

How will we get to the Maze?
The Regional Development Strategy states that in 1999, 30% of the population did not have a car – with public transport non-existent to the Maze, how are any of these people supposed to get there?

It is unlikely that public transport will bring people to the Maze without going via Belfast or other neighbouring transport hubs. Will buses depart from the Maze stadium after a midweek match to the furthest corners of the province? If people have to connect via Belfast etc, it may be too late to get home if they live far away.

The Government has highlighted the need for greater access to major facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. These would exist in Belfast but it is very hard to see how pedestrians will access the Maze site without a long journey beforehand.

Even if public transport is arranged to the Maze, it cannot get 40,000 people to a single site outside Belfast. With trains running 2-3km away, scores of buses would be needed to take fans to the stadium site. Add these to the thousands trying to get into the site in cars and mass congestion is sure to follow. Leaving afterwards will be a similar nightmare and visions of mile long queues of cars can evoke the ‘tail-gate’ culture at out-of-town US stadiums.

Government transport policy actively encourages alternatives to private car use. The new stadium proposal runs contrary to this.

‘But it’s only the same distance as Trafalgar Square is to Wembley!’
The major difference is that Wembley is not in a rural location with one main road in and one out. It is well served by multiple road, rail and bus routes. London is a large metropolis with a long history of staging major events and handling huge volumes of traffic and people. Few cities in the world can cope with events such as the Olympics, but London’s recent successful tender highlights it’s preeminence amongst cities globally. To compare a regional city is facetious.

As for Wembley, if the example is being given by Government, why aren’t we getting the same level of public transport investment?

To facilitate the journeys of spectators, £70m is being invested to ensure visitors to Wembley can move smoothly and safely to and from the stations. There will be 100 trains moving 37,500 people per hour on event days.(5)

The Government is not planning for this here. The RSNTP allocates £10.1million for inter city bus routes until 2015. This is for all of Northern Ireland yet it is only a fraction of the money being spent to bring 21 st Century public transport to the new stadium at Wembley.(6)

(1) Meetings with Amalgamation, November 2005

(2) BMTP available at www.drdni.gov.uk ; Shaping Our Future: Regional Strategic Transport Network Transport Plan 2015, Dept. For Regional Development, 2005

(3) www.roadsni.gov.uk/scheme/PreperationPoolShow.asp

(4) Knockmore Link, BMTP, as above

(5) www.wembleystadium.com

(6) RSTNTP, as above.