Glider is a bus rapid transit system in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed to improve the efficiency of mass transit in the city by connecting East and West Belfast and the Titanic Quarter via the city centre. The service is operated by Translink."New plan for Belfast's regeneration" . RTE News, 28 November 2008"Belfast Rapid Transit - Highlights from the Outline Business Case" . Department for Regional Development, Northern Ireland.
There are two routes, G1 (West to East Belfast) and G2 (city centre to Titanic Quarter). The busways total in length using both dedicated bus lanes and mixed traffic lanes. Costing approximately £100M of public funds,Adrian Rutherford. "Cutbacks blamed for closure of Dundonald park and ride terminal - just six months after it opened" . Belfast Telegraph. 19 May 2015 construction started in 2014, and opened in late 2018. It uses a fleet of 18-metre-long Van Hool ExquiCity articulated buses. Weekday services run from 05:00 to 23:00 (other times at weekends and public holidays), operating on a 7–9 minute interval, increasing to 4–6 minutes at peak times.Time To Glide - Service GuideLinda Stewart. "Belfast Rapid Transit System: Faster buses in Belfast... and a train to the airport" . Belfast Telegraph. 20 May 2014
Vehicles
The vehicles are Van Hool ExquiCity 18 articulated buses of a so-called light tram design with three doors and approximately in length. The interior is a mixture of seating and standing, plus free WiFi, USB sockets, real-time visual and audible information and CCTV. The diesel hybrid electrical engines emit a low level of pollution and noise, complying with environmental concerns. In October 2017 the Glider vehicle was unveiled at the Busworld Europe exhibition in Belgium."Belfast Rapid Transit 'glider' bus unveiled" . The Irish News. 19 October 2017
Halts and interchanges Halts along each route are approximately 400 metres apart compared to previous bus stops which were 150–250 metres apart. Halts, which are covered and have some seating and ticket machines, are 18 metres as standard but may be extended to 30 metres to allow simultaneous docking of Glider, Metro and Ulsterbus vehicles. Each halt has Kassel kerbs that allow Glider vehicles to align with the footpath to ensure quick and safe boarding and alighting. Glider vehicles on the G1 route operate between Dundonald interchange on Dunlady Road, which operates as a park and ride facility facilitating up to 519 vehicles, and runs through the city centre continuing to the West Belfast terminus at McKinstry Roundabout on Stewartstown Road."A New Town Centre for Colin" . Department of Social Development, United Kingdom. The G2 route operates from Titanic Quarter to the city centre.
Bus lanes Bus lanes along Glider routes operate from 07:00 to 19:00 on Monday to Saturday. The Department for Infrastructure introduced the lanes in advance of Glider services commencing. 12 hour bus lanes were introduced on 23 July 2018 in west Belfast, 30 July in East Belfast and on 6 August in the Titanic Quarter. City bound bus lanes were suspended in Titanic Quarter on 21 August following severe congestion.
The road width on the bus routes, which incorporate bus lanes and mixed traffic lanes, is designed with a minimum width of 12 metres, with each individual runway a minimum 3 metres wide. As well as the Glider vehicles, any other buses which can carry more than 8 passengers, motorcycles, bicycles, black taxis and wheelchair-accessible private hire taxis are allowed in the bus lanes during their hours of operation.
Routes
The routes were rebranded for launch on 3 September 2018. The G1 service combining the planned EWAY and WWAY routes with vehicles running between McKinstry roundabout and Dundonald via the city centre. The G2 service covers the CITI route between Titanic Quarter and city centre.
G1 Glider G1 services link the Stewartstown Road, Andersonstown Road, Falls Road and Divis Street in the west and Albertbridge Road and Upper Newtownards Road in the east of the city passing through the city centre."Belfast's busiest road faces new bus lane misery and 'crazy restrictions'". Belfast Telegraph, By Adrian Rutherford and Simon Watters. 31/07/2015 It passes the Waterfront Hall and St George's Market located in Oxford Street. Lanyon Place Train Station in East Bridge Street connects Belfast with Dublin and is where the Enterprise train departs from. The Europa bus and rail centre Buscentre in Glengall Street also connects Belfast with Dublin by bus as well as the George Best Belfast City Airport and Belfast International Airport. Lanyon Place Station connects with the Ulster Way walking tour route. Ballyhackamore has a number of shops and dining places, and at Stormont tourists can visit the woodlands of Stormont Estate and also Northern Ireland’s main Government buildings. The Comber Greenway, a section of the National Cycle Network in development along the old Belfast-Comber railway, is available to walkers and joggers. In the west of the city terminates at McKinstry Road Roundabout near Dairy Farm. The route passes some of the West Belfast murals, which depict a part of the history and culture of Northern Ireland, and is also close to the Belfast Peace Wall, an interface between the Shankill Road and Falls Road. Historical tours are available at Milltown Cemetery and Belfast City Cemetery, and the route also connects to scenic Forest Park and Falls Park."Falls Park" . Discover Northern Ireland.
G2 Glider G2 services link the city centre to Titanic Quarter. It operates as a continual loop passing Belfast City Hall, and allowing travel between the Odyssey, Titanic Building and surrounding areas."Luas engineer to oversee new Belfast rapid transport system" . Breaking News Ireland. Stops are located at St George's Market (May Street), City Hall (May Street), Wellington Place, Chichester Street, Custom House Square, Odyssey, Titanic, Thompson Dry Dock and Catalyst Inc. Belfast's main shopping areas are located in Royal Avenue and Donegall Street and there are two large shopping malls in Castle Court and Victoria Square. Bars, restaurants, cafés and places to stay are found in and around the City Centre, including the Cathedral Quarter and Golden Mile."Major facelift in store for city's former 'Golden Mile'" . The Irish News. 10 October 2014
History Public transport in Belfast began with the introduction of trams in 1905, which were superseded by trolleybuses in 1938; both were operated by the Belfast Corporation Tramways. The 1967 Transport Act created a public corporation, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, to oversee public transport. A Regional Development Strategy document was created, leading to the more specific Regional Transport Strategy and the Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan. To further this plan, the "Belfast Rapid Transit" project was undertaken, overseen by the Department for Regional Development, as an extension of the public transport system in Northern Ireland, which in 2016 operates under the name Translink, a collaboration of three companies Citybus (Metro), Ulsterbus and NI Railways.
In 2014 construction began on the transit system,"Work Starts On Belfast Rapid Transport System". Construction News. and by 2015 several sections were partially built.John Mulgrew. "Whitemountain Quarries deal signals start of Belfast rapid transport system's next stage" . Belfast Telegraph. 15 September 2015
In December 2015, the Northern Ireland Executive confirmed that the project would go ahead as planned."Police college and big A5 road project get go-ahead" . Belfast Telegraph, By Noel McAdam, 8/12/2015 In 2016, the government continued to give progress updates and detailed information about routes and vehicles." New Belfast Rapid Transit system to be up and running this time next year" . Belfast Live, 16 Sep 2016 By Maurice Fitzmaurice
The Upper Newtownards road bus lane was under construction in 2015 and was expected to be in operation by August, with fines given out to motorists who drove in the lane."Rapid Transit System new bus lane in operation" . The Loop, 6 August 2015, page 4 However, in June 2016 announcements were still being made of the impending opening of this section."New East Belfast Bus Lanes" . East Belfast, 21 June 2016
Several more sections were completed in 2016, and work on the West Belfast transit hub began in 2017.Marie Louise McConville. "Work begins on new £2 million transport hub in west Belfast" . The Irish News. 13 September 2017
The opening of the system was delayed because of budget restrictions.Rebecca Black. "MLAs hit out after Belfast rapid transit plan delayed until 2018" . Belfast Telegraph. 17 September 2015."Belfast Rapid Transit System A Joke" . Simply Belfast. 2016 Trial services carrying paying passengers commenced on 28 August 2018 and full service began on 3 September 2018.Maurice Fitzmaurice. "Glider buses to let passengers on from TOMORROW as part of test run" . Belfast Live. 27 August 2018
Belfast Rapid Transit The planned Belfast Rapid Transit network was a set of three rapid transit routes planned for the city, including: EWAY as the eastern arm, with WWAY as the western arm, running to Dunmurry in County Antrim, a short northeastern arm, the CITI route to the Catalyst Inc via the Titanic Quarter, and a shared city centre loop to link all three routes. If the rapid transit network had been completed its total length would have been about .
EWAY EWAY was a proposed bus rapid transit route to be built to link Dundonald in County Down with Belfast City Centre. It was to be about long.
In January 2007 David Cairns MP, then Regional Development Minister of Northern Ireland, announced that engineering consultants WS Atkins PLC were to undertake economic feasibility studies on rapid transit proposals for Belfast, including assessing the Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan (BMTP) proposals for the EWAY rapid transit scheme which would run between Dundonald and Belfast city centre. A report was expected around mid-2007. Both the Regional Transportation Strategy (RTS) for Northern Ireland and the BMTP recognised the value of introducing rapid transit services in Belfast.
Originally much of the EWAY was to be routed along the trackbed of what had been the main line of the Belfast and County Down Railway (BCDR) between the site of Ballymacarrett Junction in East Belfast and the former Dundonald railway station in County Down. In 2003–2004 the Knock Valley Relief Sewer was laid along of the former BCDR trackbed, flowing from Dundonald to Ballymacarrett. The sewer is aligned so as not to jeopardise EWAY's then-proposed use of the trackbed.
However, the trackbed had already been re-used to create the Comber Greenway pedestrian and cycle route. A campaign group called "Greenway to Stay" was formed to lobby for EWAY to be re-routed along Upper Newtownards Road. In October 2011 it was announced that EWAY would not include the Comber Greenway in its route.
At first both light rail and bus rapid transit were considered as options. Light rail was eliminated on cost grounds, and the entire Belfast Rapid Transit project has now been replaced by the Glider bus rapid transit.
CITI Belfast The CITI was a proposed light-rail route that would have served the Titanic Quarter and George Best Belfast City Airport. A report revealed that there were not enough people in the city to justify the project, instead recommending the use of a bus network to save costs. The Glider bus rapid transit system began operating in 2018. It would have been part of a wider network, including the EWAY and WWAY routes.
Future