Translink Train Service » October 6
I realise that this is my first post for close to three weeks, and my first post since arriving back in the motherland, so welcome home to me. I’ve started back at university, moved back up to Belfast and have settled into student life once again. In some ways it’s nice to be left the work environment, on the other hand it’s not so nice to have no income and be in final year with a ton of work to do. Anyway, that’s by the by.
Let me get to the issue in hand here. I’m in favour of public transport and I embrace it where possible. Being without a car in San Francisco for an entire year was liberating, as the cost of fuel, insurance, tax and upkeep puts a fair dent in your expense sheet. I was also rather spoiled in SF with their excellent public transport network of buses, metro, trollies and cable cars. For most destinations there were several ways of getting from A to B.
Back home here in Northern Ireland, our public transport provider - Translink - haven’t quite thought out their pricing strategy yet. You’re grand if you take the train. To take the train from Jordanstown to City Hospital just hop on at the J’town stop and tranfer at Central Station. Easy.
Then someone please explain why the policy for the buses isn’t the same? If I take the UniLink bus from Jordanstown to Queen’s University, I’m still about a 15 minute walk from home, so it makes sense to transfer to the Metro bus service which stops literally right outside my front door. But no, if I need to do that Translink will fleece me another $1.70 or something just for that short little journey. Of course, I could walk but when it’s raining heavily and I’m tired it’s not the preferable option. Like I said before, I’m going from A to B and Translink can do that for me, just not in one trip. I don’t transferring, really I don’t, but why should I have to pay because their crappy bus system doesn’t take me where I need to go in one route.
And finally, the “just buy a day pass” argument doesn’t work because a) day passes aren’t valid on Unilink, and b) even if they were I don’t see the need for a day pass as I’m not making many commutes, just one.
I’ve explained this to several people who all fail to see my point (although most are not public transport users, so their opinion is therefore superfluous). Am I on my own on this?
Stephen Reid Oct 7
Yeah public transport here does suck which Is why I’m driving into Uni everyday.
I think the problem is that Belfast has expanded rather quickly over the past few years and they havn’t really got round to upgrading the transport infrastructure at the same time. i.e. very few bus lanes. It should not take 45mins to get to Jordanstown by bus (not including walking time) when I can drive down the Westlink and be there in 15-20mins.
You didn’t get a transfer because the Unilink bus is a separate subsidised service for students, Metro isn’t. Unlike the trains, were it is all the one service. Well except for the Enterprise to Dublin. I’m pretty sure if you took the Enterprise from Dublin to Belfast you would have to pay two fares, one for Enterprise and one for NI Rail. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Not saying it’s fair (no pun intended), just the way it is.
Also if “their crappy bus system” took you were you want in one route that would mean a heck of a lot more buses on the roads and Belfast not being a large city, it wouldn’t cope too well with the extra traffic (it’s bad enough as it is).
Adam Oct 7
Perhaps the reason why traffic is so bad is because the public transport is so lacking. On an average work day in SF there were over 1 million people in the city, and still the traffic wasn’t that bad. Most people realized that public transit was more sensible. It just doesn’t work here.
emma Oct 8
nope. public transport in NI sucks… having spent 2 years living in Glasgow I hate trying to get around NI - it all runs at awkward times, nothing fits together well (ie transfering from bus to train or such like), it costs a fortune… meh.