Borderless thoughts on Politics, Public Affairs, the media and anything else that matters from Conall McDevitt, SDLP MLA for South Belfast
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  • Rush hour Belfast

    Posted on July 6th, 2009 Conall McDevitt 5 comments

    I took this picture on the 18.02 train from Belfast Great Victoria Street Station to Lisburn just as it arrived at Adelaide Station. As you can see my carriage was empty as was the rest of the train.

    There is a direct correlation between economic activity and public transport uptake. The busier a city, the more congested it becomes and the more people turn to public transport to escape the traffic. Expensive parking is another reason the hard pressed commuter might give up his or her privacy pod for the mass alternative. Both are the inevitable side effects of a successful city – the infamous “price you pay for progress”. For the record, the train is busier when the schools are open and those not old enough to get behind the wheel of a car have no alternative but to ride the rails.

    The train I was on was built in Spain some four years ago.  It is state of the art diesel commuter stock which forms the backbone of Northern Ireland Railway’s strategic investment plan. it didn’t come cheap and needs to be pretty full to justify the investment.  The fact it was empty is not simply NIR’s fault, it’s an indictment of our regional economy. It is why so many say we are sleep walking our way through the downturn making no attempt to address the many and growing challenges our region faces.

    I’ll be on the enterprise to Dublin first thing. The train will be pretty full with most if not all seats taken – there are occasions on which it’s standing room only.

    Why?

    Because Dublin, like London is a city which is easier to get around on public transport for all the reasons I mentioned above. Even in the depths of recession productivity there is still three times that in the North and the DART and buses are still full every morning and night.

    In the sixties things were different in the nation’s capital. The government was closing down railways because the economy was in such a state that demand had all but collapsed. It took the south 30 years to wake up from its economic hibernation.  

    It is now a decade since we left our tragic past behind us. Things should be getting better by now. Lets face it, July 2009 is not the time to be sitting on empty trains in Ireland’s second city.

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    5 responses to “Rush hour Belfast”

    1. ar July 6th, 2009 at 20:20

      Hi,

      I lived in London for about 3 years, I’m new in Belfast. And I don’t take the train, and I understand why people don’t take the train.

      it’s not because they don’t have a work, it’s because the train is utterly expensive here. Same for the bus.

      Far cheaper to have a car… it does not make economical sense to take the train for a lot of people.

    2. Conall McDevitt July 7th, 2009 at 11:06

      Translink has published figures about train v car costs:

      “Translink has examined current petrol and parking prices against the cost of weekly, monthly and annual NI Railways passes. It found that a simple change in travel habits is all it takes to make significant savings within the course of a year. Translink identified the following examples:
      Portadown to Belfast City Centre save £5,208.00 per working year
      Lisburn to Belfast City Centre – save £2,240.50 per working year
      Ballymena to Belfast City Centre – save £5,056.71 per working year
      Bangor to Belfast City Centre – save £2,617.73 per working year
      Carrickfergus to Belfast City Centre – save £2,717.50 per working year.”

    3. DC July 7th, 2009 at 11:22

      Probably not the best time nor date to be assessing train travel as come the summer months people take holidays, term time etc in what is still, don’t forget, a largely public sector family-flexi economy. Also I wouldn’t call 6.08 rush hour, more like 4-5, based on our public sector lifestyles.

      Also Conal with the schools/unis off it is more attractive to use your car to get to work over the summer months. NI is a small region which makes car travel very appealing when the road network is cleared out of school traffic because it saves time, perhaps not money. And time is what our lives all consists of – less time travelling more time for living/working etc!

      But the one thing, big thing, I would say is that Translink needs to do more roadside advertising to become more assertive and aggressive at getting people out of their cars.

      There are many bottlenecks and slow down points and Translink should get DoE approval for roadside advertising that shows simply the benefits of rail travel and how to use it as an alternative.

      Like showing rail maps and fares and park and ride etc. Perhaps even using promo people at near-standstill-bottlenecks to hand out the alternative rail option with step-by-step guides to using a train service that suits their own needs e.g. the journey times, monthly ticket saving options etc.

    4. BM July 7th, 2009 at 13:17

      I’m 20 and have lived in Northern Ireland my whole life, and was on a train here for the first time only three months ago. Friends in England think I must lead a privileged life of chauffeur driven cars… but I tell them I’m from Derry where there are no local trains and the journey to Belfast takes twice as long by train as by bus or car. I assumed it was like this all over Northern Ireland, but at Easter saw the high quality trains and service on the Belfast-Lisburn line and was both extremely impressed and frustrated that such a service was so limited. It’s one of the oldest Derry complaints going but one which should be addressed.

    5. Alan July 7th, 2009 at 15:14

      BM – the Derry line is being invested in at long last. It has just been relayed between Ballymena and Coleraine allowing 70mph between those cities. Currently it is 90mph to Antrim and 70 to Ballymena. Journey times should fall when the new timetable comes in autumn to allow for the new track quality. There will soon (by 2011) be investment between Coleraine and Derry and a delivery of new trains bringing a 1 train per hour service between Derry and Belfast. This will be about 100 minutes or so city to city.

      As for your complaint I am 100% with you and I see the above investment as only a start. They should make it 90mph all the way from Belfast to Derry and that could make it a 70 minute journey. They have double track lines all the way and they trains should be of intercity style comfort.

      As for the rest of the service they should (i) add the Antrim-Lisburn railway line back and have 20 minutely services to the airport, (ii) improve the stations at Derry and Great Victoria Street, and add a new station at the north end of Belfast centre (to serve Cathedral Quarter). They should reopen the line to Comber and Newtownards (and NOT as a bus lane which is the current plan). They should add larger park and ride car parks at the main stations, these are very popular at Ballymena where the car park is always full every time they add spaces!

      To be fair to NIR, the passenger numbers are up substantially since they invested in the new trains. In fact last year there were for the first time more people travelling on NIs trains at any time since the 1950s. This shows the effect of the new trains and the effect of investment.

      NIR has been chronically underinvested in.

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