The Comber Greenway is a traffic-free section of the

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...

that runs along the old Belfast-Comber railway line. The

cycle path A bike path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "Class III bikewa ...

starts on Dee Street in east

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

and finishes at

Comber Comber ( , , locally ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies south of Newtownards, at the northern end of Strangford Lough. It is situated in the townland of Town Parks, the civil parish of Comber and the historic barony of Ca ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

. As well as a cycling path, it is also popular with people on foot. The most recent addition to the route was in November 2008 when the final link between Old Dundonald Road/Comber Rd junction and Comber was opened. This added to the route. One section runs through a SLNCI-designated Wetland ecosystem.

Route

The traffic-free route starts at Dee Street in East Belfast and passes the

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statue at the Holywood Arches, along the Bloomfield Walkway to Sandown Road where it continues past the PSNI headquarters to a newly installed toucan crossing at the Knock Road. From here it goes to Kings Road and on to Abbey Road, through Tullycarnet and Ardcarn to East Link Road in Dundonald. It continues through a wetland area emerging at the Comber Road, Dundonald where there is a toucan crossing. The route continues from Comber Road, Dundonald past the Billy Neill Centre for Soccer Excellence where the former railway line passes near the Enler River. Walkers and cyclists can cross the River Enler and farm lanes by a series of reinstated bridges before reaching its end at Belfast Road, Comber. On its route the Greenway passes through former

Belfast and County Down Railway The Belfast and County Down Railway (BCDR) was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland (later Northern Ireland) linking Belfast with County Down. It was built in the 19th century and absorbed into the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948. All but th ...

stations at , , , before finishing just short of Comber station.

History

The current route of the Greenway was originally the main line of the

. The railway was in use from 1850s until 1950 when the

Ulster Transport Authority The Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966. Formation and consolidation The UTA was formed by the Transport Act 1948, which merged the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board (NIRTB ...

closed it. Through the 1950s the track was lifted in phases and infrastructure, including bridges, removed. The remains of Neill's Hill station survive near Sandown Road behind Clara Park and Sandhill Gardens. In 1964 it was proposed that a section of what is now the Greenway be utilised for the M7 Motorway project. This motorway was not built. The Belfast Urban Area Plan 2001 included a proposal for a smaller-scale road along the same route, but that was never built either. By late in the century the Greenway had become a recreation path for walkers, cyclists etc. In 2003–04 the Knock Valley Relief Sewer was installed from Ballymacarett to Dundonald resulting in substantial excavation along the path. Subsequently a number of government agencies contributed funds to upgrade the Greenway with a modern hard surface, road crossings and, with the opening of the section alongside Police Headquarters, a continuous route from inner Belfast to Comber. It was officially opened on 8 November 2008.

EWAY proposal

As part of the Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan 2015 published in November 2004, a rapid transport scheme was proposed for three routes in Belfast. The route to the east of the city, dubbed

EWAY Eway, E-Way, or any other variant, may refer to: * eWay, global electronic payment system * eway, an electronic street map application for Australia by ''Ausway'' * ''E-way'', abbreviation of expressway * ''e-way'', electronic toll-type toll roa ...

, proposed utilising the Greenway for either a light rail or bus link for Belfast. Consultants

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and

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subsequently completed a preliminary assessment of the proposals. Key conclusions include the preference for bus over light rail on cost grounds and the construction of much of the route along the Greenway. There is political support for the rapid transit but the EWAY route is contentious. A campaign group was formed to oppose EWAY using the Greenway and wants it rerouted along Upper Newtownards Road and increased public consultation. In October 2011 it was announced that EWAY would not include the Comber Greenway in its route.

References

External links

* * *{{cite web , url= http://www.drdni.gov.uk/index/bmtp/reports.htm , title= Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan 2015 , publisher= Department for Regional Development , access-date= 23 May 2007 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070519061745/http://www.drdni.gov.uk/index/bmtp/reports.htm , archive-date= 19 May 2007 , url-status= dead , df= dmy-all Closed railways in Northern Ireland Cycleways in Northern Ireland