[Article] Half Translink train seats empty

Victor

Is this a non-story?

Of course Luas gets over this by not providing enough seats. :pac:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7498245.stm

Half Translink train seats empty

Trains in Northern Ireland have been operating with more than 250,000 empty seats every week.

The figures, which include off-peak periods, were taken from an average week over the last year.

They show that across Northern Ireland Translink train services, more seats were empty than occupied.

Translink's head of rail operations, Richard Knox, said it would have to look at how to attract additional passengers to its services.

"We do also have to take into consideration that we've seen over a 50% growth in our services since 2001, and 23% in the last two years," he added.

"This has been a fantastic period of success for the company and we will continue to work with various promotions to try and attempt to bring new passengers and also to give increasingly good value to our existing passengers."

On the Belfast to Londonderry service, 70% of available seats were taken up, while on the Bangor route, the figure was just 36%.

It was something similar on the cross-border Enterprise service to and from Dublin - at 35%.

The Portadown line fared a little better, with half of its 114,000 seats taken up.

On average across all lines, almost 257,000 train seats were empty every week.

Susie Brown, from the Consumer Council, said the challenge to Translink was "to ensure that are enough seats at peak times so that passengers choosing to go by rail get a seat and enjoy a comfortable and safe journey".

kelzer

Translink are probably ripping out seats right this minute!

patrickc

kelzer wrote: »

Translink are probably ripping out seats right this minute!

and they can donate them to luas then, happy days:D

Zebra3

The last time I travelled to Belfast from Dublin it was €20 return with Bus Eireann. They'll have to rethink their rail fares to entice me back to using the Enterprise. Even on a Friday evening the bus makes great time.

Slice

Having looked at the Translink website a number of times in the past it seems that Translink customers get much better special offers on train fares, including Enterprise fares, than IE customers. £10 Dublin day return is an offer they have at the moment; that's so much less than what we're expected to pay the other way round.

donvito99

the enterprise is dead slow anyway once it crosses the border, and most of the way on the south, except for a few stretches when it gets up to about 90