Belfast Grand Central Station
Translink has revealed that over 400k additional passenger journeys have been made on public transport in the last two months compared to the same period last year.
The growth of tens of thousands more passengers has been put down to the opening of the new Belfast Grand Central Station alongside the range of bus frequency enhancements and the new rail timetable including the enhanced hourly Enterprise service to Dublin.
This is approximately a 10% increase on local bus and rail and an increase of over 30% on cross border Enterprise passenger journeys.
Chris Conway, Translink Group Chief Executive said:
“As we have witnessed recently, a modal shift to public transport is vital for the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of our region. Passengers are clearly voting with their feet, demonstrating that sustainable investment in public transport services and infrastructure has benefits across the whole country.
“The new integrated transport hub offers an enhanced user experience, helping to spark real change and offers a huge opportunity to reimagine how people travel for a better, more inclusive and sustainable future for generations to come. We have also increased frequency on many popular Goldliner routes on locations to and from Belfast and have high frequency park and ride services operating from Sprucefield, Ballymartin, Blacks Road and Cairnshill facilities, making it convenient to travel into Belfast by public transport.
“The enhanced cross border connectivity with the hourly Enterprise services is also proving popular, with passengers enjoying more choice and flexibility.
“However, this is just the beginning. Through a collective effort on modal shift, together with long term investment, we look forward to building on this success and will continue to work with all stakeholders to deliver our ambitious plans to further transform Northern Ireland’s public transport infrastructure for a better-connected society for all”.