Northern Ireland

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Northern Ireland

10/04/2022, 21:00 Post: #1
	redstar Alexander Dash	Joined: Jan 2018

Northern Ireland
I spent a couple of days up north at the end of March. I visited Derry, Coleraine, Belfast, Newcastle and Newry before crossing the border back to Dundalk and on to Dublin Airport, and home!
Its a very differnt operation to down south and certainly differnt to the North West of England. Translink is state run and operated Ulsterbus throughout the province and Metro in Belfast. Generally buses/ coaches are in good condition and there are currently a lot of new vehicles appearing: Hydrogen and electric double deckers in Belfast, new coaches on Goldliner routes amongst the addtions. Most large towns are provided with high quality bus stations and are integrated with the train service, limited though it is. Sadly paper timetables are a thing of the past and this is particularly an issue in Belfast with its services as I can never remember where buses go..I will explain why again.

First up is the north west. The Foyle Metro fleet in Derry is due to be replaced with an all electric fleet, good, the Versas rattle like hell. I must mention that although there is a bus manufacturer based near Ballymena, Translink have regularly take Solos and Versas from Optare and Enviro 300s, as well as coaches from everyone!

[Image: DSC_0109%20%281280x718%29-L.jpg]

2283 & 2882 NW Transport Hub Derry 30 March 2022 - Foyle Metro buses are an orangey shade of red. Normall Ulsterbuses often appear on Foyle services, in this case on the shuttle to the train station.