The report in March Buses on comments made at the UK Bus Summit by Northern Ireland Department of Infrastructure’s Ciarán de Búrca on Belfast’s Glider bus rapid transit highlights two things that the DfI got wrong: the vehicles and routes that do not actually end where people need to go.
The eastern end of the cross-city G1 route is a car park, while the western end is a roundabout. The Van Hool Exqui.City bendybuses have a capacity of 105, with just 42 seats, replacing, in most cases, 74-seat double-deckers.
Why would I want to (potentially) stand on a journey from a car park when I could previously get a comfortable seat on a bus leaving from near my front door? The DfI will no doubt cite the full car park at Dundonald as a success, but Translink staff there tell me that many of the parked cars are those of people driving from the nearby Ballybeen and Cooper’s Mill estates so that their homeward journey will be easier. Feeder buses do not always connect with Glider. Surely all Glider has done here is increase traffic around the junction next to the car park?
Comments on social media are less than enthusiastic about the feeder buses, with one user reporting that what was a previously a 40min peak-hou…
