As Citybus celebrates 50 years, PAUL SAVAGE looks back over the challenges the Belfast operation has faced and how it has changed
Belfast in the early 1970s wasn’t the best place to be running buses, but run they did despite the disruption caused by what is now referred to as The Troubles, which had erupted in August 1969 with street disturbances including rioting, hijacking, burning, bombing and shooting. Belfast Corporation’s Transport Department (BCT) was the main provider of city bus services and bore the brunt of much of the street violence, losing 94 buses between August 15, 1969 and March 10, 1973.