Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a public corporation in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

which provides the

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...

in the region. NI Railways, Ulsterbus and Metro are all part of Translink. It is led by CEO Chris Conway. Translink provides services all over Northern Ireland and also to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, in a partnership deal with its counterpart in the Republic of Ireland. It also provides local bus services in many towns and cities all over

including Bangor,

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...

, Omagh,

Craigavon Craigavon may refer to: * Craigavon, County Armagh, a planned town in Northern Ireland ** Craigavon Borough Council, 1972–2015 local government area centred on the planned town * Viscount Craigavon, title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom ** ...

and Antrim. The Metro service operates throughout

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 Kingdom ...

, right out to the suburbs. NITHCo was established in 1967 to take over the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

and

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

services of 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 (NIRT ...

(UTA), namely

Northern Ireland Railways NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) ( ga, Iarnród Thuaisceart Éireann); and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose paren ...

(NIR) and

Ulsterbus Ulsterbus is a public transport operator in Northern Ireland and operates bus services outside Belfast. It is part of Translink, the brand name for the subsidiary operating companies of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, which als ...

. In 1996 the Translink organization was created to integrate the services of the

as well as Citybus Limited (Belfast only – successor to the

Belfast Corporation Belfast City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhéal Feirste) is the local authority with responsibility for part of the city of Belfast, the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The Council serves an estimated population of (), the l ...

Transport Department). Citybus is now known as Metro.

Northern Ireland Railways

Northern Ireland Railways (NIR), formerly and briefly called Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is responsible for running the railway network in

. The Northern Ireland railway network is currently . The main passenger line operates from

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

to Bangor. In addition to this, Translink also provides rail services between

and

to the north and

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Armagh, Armagh and County Down, Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry ...

to the south, continuing across the border, which is part of the fast ''

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

'' service between Belfast and

. Also operated are services to

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid a ...

and Portrush, which is a branch off the Belfast-Derry railway line, at

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern ...

. In 2014, Translink announced that they were looking at proposals for a service operating from

Belfast International Airport Belfast International Airport is an airport northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland, is the main airport for the city of Belfast. Until 1983, it was known as ''Aldergrove Airport'', after the nearby village of Aldergrove. In 2018, over 6.2 ...

to Belfast city centre. These included proposals to reopen the Lisburn-Antrim railway line, which was closed to passenger trains in June 2003 in favour of the Bleach Green line which provides a direct line between Belfast and Derry. The Lisburn-Antrim line passes Belfast International Airport and could be used to provide services to it. However, despite general political support from the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameral , house1 = , leader1_type = S ...

, there has been no movement on these proposals to date.

Ulsterbus

Ulsterbus is responsible for most of the bus services in

. They operate around 20 bus stations which include: Armagh, Antrim,

Lisburn Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with ...

, Bangor,

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the civil parish of Newtownards and the historic baron ...

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be the b ...

Dungannon Dungannon () is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 14,340 at the 2011 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council had its headquarters in t ...

, Omagh,

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,823 a ...

, Magherafelt,

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

and others within

and 1,100 buses. Ulsterbus is charged with transporting over 65,000 children per day to school.

Goldliner

Goldliner is the name given to the key Inter-urban bus services operated by Ulsterbus linking major cities in the

and cross-border services into the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

. Amongst these are the flagship Service 212/X212 'Maiden City Flyer' from Belfast to Derry & the X1 from Belfast to Dublin/Dublin Airport. There are is a cross channel ( North Channel) service 923 Belfast –

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

via Belfast Harbour and

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of ...

Urby

On 7 August 2018, Translink launched the new Urby bus service. This service makes use of double deck buses built by Wrightbus and feature free

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

, leather seats and USB charging ports, with buses running on improved schedules. Two Urby networks were launched, with the first introduced along commuter routes such as in June 2018 to operate in

Ballyclare Ballyclare () is a small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,953 according to the 2011 census, and is located within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It sits on the river Six Mile Water. The town ...

, Bangor,

and Dromore, and another introduced to

Ballygowan Ballygowan () is a village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the Ards and North Down Borough. The town of Comber is a short distance to the north-east, the town of Saintfield to the south, and the city of Belfast further to the n ...

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 ...

and

Moneyreagh Moneyreagh or Moneyrea () is a small village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is just off the main road between Belfast and Ballygowan. It is situated in the civil parish of Comber and the historic barony of Castlereagh Lower. ...

in September 2019.

Contract hire and tours

Translink provides a number of hire services to the public. Ulsterbus formerly operated "Day Tours" through Ulsterbus Tours to other parts of Northern Ireland, the

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

mainly for shopping and visits to tourist attractions. Ulsterbus Tours was closed in September 2020 due to the financial impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

on Translink.

Metro

The Translink Metro service (previously Citybus) operates bus services within the Greater Belfast Area. Metro operates 12 bus corridors (QBCs) in Belfast, plus a number of additional routes. The service began as the Belfast Corporation Transport Department. In 1973, these services were transferred to the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company as Citybus Limited, becoming part of the "Translink" integrated network in 1995. In 2004, Translink/NITHC announced that Citybus would be completely rebranded & reorganised into 12 QBCs and integrated with Ulsterbus services in the Greater Belfast area. Citybus was re-branded as Metro on 7 February 2005.

Foyle Metro

Foyle Metro is a division of Translink that operates bus services in

. The service was opened in August 2017 following a 3m investment to update the city's bus routes and replace some of the older buses. Foyle Metro is similar to Metro that operates buses in Belfast. Foyle Metro operates across 13 key corridors from the city centre, with an additional route 14A/B/C orbiting the city's north side from Ballymagroarty to Currynierin via

Altnagelvin Hospital Altnagelvin Area Hospital is the main hospital for the North West of Northern Ireland. It is located in Waterside, Derry. It provides services to the city of Derry and County Londonderry, but also some specialist and acute services for parts of ...

Belfast Rapid Transit System - Glider

The Belfast Rapid Transit System, which became operational on 3 September 2018, is a bus service run by Translink. The routes are served by 34 18-metre

bendy buses An articulated bus, also referred to as a banana bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usua ...

, branded as

Glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of gliding ...

, built by

Van Hool Van Hool NV () is a Belgium, Belgian family-owned coachbuilder and manufacturer of buses, Coach (bus), coaches, trolleybuses, and Semi-trailer, trailers. Most of the buses and coaches are built entirely by Van Hool, with engines and axle ...

and specifically designed for Belfast. They feature real time passenger information, destination announcements, CCTV, free Wi-Fi, USB charging facilities, air conditioning, and operate every 7–8 minutes throughout the working day. Route G1 links the

Park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

facility at Dundonald in East Belfast with the McKinstry Road roundabout in West Belfast whereas Route G2 connects the Titanic Quarter with the city centre. The service is expected to help meet the future transport needs of Belfast.

Translink Future Ticketing System

In 2018, Translink announced a new payments and ticketing system to be used across all of its public transport services in Northern Ireland. The scheme includes the installation of 4500 ticket vending machines, 300 of which will be inside of train and bus stations and in Belfast City Centre, and passengers would be able to pay for journeys either using a contactless credit or debit card, or an "

Oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

-Style" 'ePurse' prepaid smartcard, which can be topped up online or via a mobile app, though paper tickets will still remain available. The first part of the system had been initially rolled out alongside introduction of the Glider Bus Rapid Transit system in 2018. The new ticketing system is expected to be fully rolled out by the end of 2022, and is expected to have cost £43 million upon completion. When completed, the new fare system would become the largest of its type in the United Kingdom outside of

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness Greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than al ...

Criticisms

Translink received criticism in 2008 from Consumer Council Chief Executive, Eleanor Gill for providing inadequate service despite raising fares at a greater rate than inflation. She told BBC News that "passengers will rightly ask why average fare increases on Ulsterbus and Metro are above inflation while punctuality and reliability are below their target." In February 2020 a senior civil servant issued a stark warning on the future of Northern Ireland's public transport network due to funding concerns. The civil servant said if Translink's funding problems got to the level of closing railway lines and non-profitable bus routes, any cuts would need to be agreed by Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon. In 2021, Translink, despite being cash-strapped spent around £15,000 on a new logo design which led to public spending campaigners criticising the "costly redesign" at a time when Translink is facing serious funding pressures and cuts to services. Translink said the new design helps to "modernise and simplify the brand presence", also adding that its former logo had been in use for 25 years with only minor changes made during that time. Translink confirmed the cost of the rebrand in response to a Freedom of Information request from Belfast Live.

Gallery

File:The Enterprise passing through Adelaide.jpg, alt=Enterprise DVT no. 9003 passing through Adelaide railway station, Belfast., Enterprise passing through Adelaide, 2021 File:NIR C4k no. 4002.jpg, alt=Passengers are boarding NI Railways class 4000 no. 4002 at Holywood station, 2022., NI Railways 4002 at Holywood station, 2022 File:Foyle Metro 1828 + 1823.jpg, alt=Foyle Metro Optare Versas no. 1828 and 1823 parked at a bus stop., Two Foyle Metro Optare Versas, 2022 File:Translink Metro 796.jpg, alt=Translink Metro Scania Solar no. 796 at Dundonald Park and Ride, Belfast., Translink Metro at Dundonald Park and Ride, Belfast. File:Glider Belfast no. 3206.jpg, Glider bendy bus no. 3206 at Dundonald Park and Ride. File:Goldline i6 2058.jpg, alt=Translink Goldline Scania Irizar i6 no. 2058 at Belfast Europa Buscentre, about to operate an evening express service to Larne., Translink Goldline coach at the Europa Buscentre, Belfast File:Ulsterbus ALX400 2893.jpg, alt=Translink Ulsterbus ALX 400 no. 2893 about to operate a rail replacement bus from Belfast Lanyon Place to Bangor., Double deck Ulsterbus operating a rail substitution service, Belfast File:Ulsterbus Tours 114.jpg, alt=Ulsterbus Tours coach no. 114 at Foyle Street bus station, Derry., Ulsterbus Tours coach on a Private Hire service, Derry~Londonderry

References

External links

Translink web pageNI BusIrish Transport Trust Ulsterbus Tours
{{authority control Railway companies of the United Kingdom Bus groups in the United Kingdom Road transport in Northern Ireland Rail transport in Northern Ireland Government-owned companies of Northern Ireland Non-Departmental Public Bodies of the Northern Ireland Executive 1967 establishments in Northern Ireland