WATCH: A one-minute video whizz through Belfast's brand new York Street railway station as 'grim' old one set for demolition within days

​With the old Yorkgate station set for demolition next Monday, the new one is now up-and-running two years and millions of pounds after work first began.

Work has come on quickly: here’s what it looked like just six weeks ago.

York Street stands just to the northern edge of the city centre, almost opposite the Cityside shopping and cinema complex.

The old station was perched atop a steep hill, accessible either by four flights of steps or by pathways cut through dense bushes which attracted drug dealers.

The station building itself was small, cold, unloved, and unloveable.

The bushes were removed several years ago and the station was somewhat revamped, but this was just to prolong its life until the new one came along.

What’s changed now is that the big hill upon which the old station stands has been largely removed, meaning the entrance to the new station (which has been built right next to the old one) is now much closer to the road.

What’s more there are now three floors instead of one: firstly the entrance, then up the escalator to the main lobby where there’s a cafe and views looking out across the nearby estates – then, if passengers need to cross to the citybound platforms, there’s one more floor.

There, a large “skybridge” (as Translink call it) has replaced the old corrugated metal walkway over the tracks between platforms.

There is also a cafe and a number of automated ticket machines.

The infrastructure minister John O’Dowd turned up to inaugurate the new station, which first opened to visitors one day earlier.

One of those who remembers the old one was the city’s High Sheriff Sammy Douglas (a DUP councillor) who said it had been “grim”.

"Such a transformation,” he said on Monday.

“Fair play to Translink for initiating this, and the department for supporting it.

"When you go across Europe and see stations like this here, it’s great to see Belfast come into the real world.”

Translink chief executive Chris Conway had previously said that the Yorkgate project was “more or less on budget” – having initially been earmarked as £10m – but would not be drawn on how much exactly they had overspent.

Also part of the new station is a roughly eight metre (26 foot) high statute called Journey Lines made up of winding metal tubes lined, which will ultimately be lit up in changing, multicoloured lights.

For more Northern Ireland transport stories, see here:

• Northern Ireland would get 200kmph train line west of the Bann as part of all-Ireland rail blueprint

• First-ever footage of the colossal replacement for Great Victoria Street Station in Belfast - now renamed Grand Central Station and due for completion in one year