Railways
Bus and rail public transport in Northern Ireland is operated by subsidiaries of Translink. Bus services in the city proper and the nearer suburbs are operated by Translink Metro, with services focusing on linking residential districts with the City Centre on twelve quality bus corridors running along main radial roads, resulting in poor connections between different suburban areas. More distant suburbs are served by Ulsterbus.
Northern Ireland Railways provides suburban services along three lines running through Belfast’s northern suburbs to Carrickfergus and Larne, eastwards towards Bangor and south-westwards towards Lisburn and Portadown. This service is known as the Belfast Suburban Rail system.
Northern Ireland Railways is the sole public railway operator in Northern Ireland. The network serving Greater Belfast is known as Belfast Suburban Rail and is owned by Translink. These provide rail services along four major routes:
- Belfast-Larne railway line runs through Belfast’s northern suburbs to Carrickfergus and Larne
- Belfast-Bangor railway line runs eastwards towards Bangor
- Belfast-Newry railway line and south-westwards through Lisburn and Portadown to Newry
- Belfast-Derry railway line and north eastern through Antrim and Coleraine to Derry
Some important rail stations in Belfast include Belfast Central, Great Victoria Street, Botanic, City Hospital, Yorkgate. The Enterprise is a cross-border inter-city train service between Dublin Connolly in the Republic of Ireland and Belfast Central in Northern Ireland. It is jointly operated by Iarnród Éireann (IE) and Northern Ireland Railways (NIR).
In January 2007, it was revealed that a feasibility study is being carried out, to construct a light rail system in the city, initially along two routes, eventually along four. It has been compared to Luas, the tram system in Dublin.
These proposals include:
- EWAY - East of city and Dundonald
- WWAY - West of city
- CITI - Titanic Quarter and George Best Belfast City Airport
- SupeRoute - South of City
In 2008, the Department for Regional Development issued a report suggesting that a "high class bus-based network could cut commuting times while costing significantly less".
Read more about this topic: Transport In Belfast
Famous quotes containing the word railways:
“There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)