Translink, the owner of both Ulsterbus and Northern Ireland railways is running ads at the minute to leave the car at home and get the bus, fair enough if they could provide us with a service that would persuade me to leave my car at home.
Ulsterbus have been running the bus service within Northern Ireland since 1967, and operate over 1000 buses across the province. They regularly update their bus stock, and most coaches, especially the Goldliner service, express coaches between towns and cities, are relatively new. The older buses are generally used for school runs where they are promptly trashed by gangs of schoolkids.
There is also a variety of bus sizes, from the small 15 seaters for use within town servieces to the 'bendy buses' which are used mainly for the Belfast - Londonderry route. 'Bendy buses' are the ones that look like 2 buses joined together with an accordion in the middle.
I regularly travel all over Northern Ireland, & since passing my driving test, rarely take the bus. I used to travel up & down to Belfast all the time on the bus, but that was necessity rather than choice.
I live in an area where public transport is pretty much none existant, there are express buses, but only set stops, so I have to drive to the bus stop anyways. They also tend to be dirty, especially some of the seats that you'd be afraid to sit on, and I have met quite a few rude drivers. The fares are also quite expensive, compared to the cost of petrol etc of taking the car.
Staff within the bus stations are generally very helpful though, and the regeneration schemes that are happening all over Northern Ireland are helping bus stations in general to be nicer places to wait for your bus, rather than the cold damp stations I remember a few years ago.
Within Belfast, I would occasionally take the bus, as it’s easier than trying to drive around the city, but even so, I tend to drive. Fares are generally reasonable within the city though.
It's a great idea in theory to get people to use public transport, but the infrastructure in many areas of Northern Ireland is very lacking. There needs to be a lot more money pumped into the bus services, however, the fares are too expensive currently for the service received, and in some areas, they treat buses as mobile fireplaces!
Overall, I wouldn't recommend public transport, it has its place, but I can't see many that have the option of driving taking the option to travel by public transport unless the journey is going to be less stressful, sometimes it's nice to be driven around, even if it is by a bus driver!
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Apr 5th, 2004
(May 18th, 2004)
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