Category: Metro

Blogging, Law, Metro, Northern Ireland life, Police, Taxi, Translink, TransportLeave a comment
Highway Code for Northern Ireland Sections 137 & 138

Taxi drivers: useful but sometimes ignorant

Michael McFarland Campbell

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You know how it is, you are out somewhere and you need to get home. Or perhaps you are at home and you need to get somewhere else quickly. You consider the options:

  1. I walk there.
  2. I get the ‘bus there.
  3. I get a taxi there.

Well, sometimes walking is not quick enough – or the distance is too great. ‘Buses are not running where you need them to go, or they are too infrequent. So you decide that you are going to spend the extra money required to buy the professional services of a driver and order a taxi.

That’s right, I said professional services. Continue reading “Taxi drivers: useful but sometimes ignorant”

APNI, DUP, Metro, news, NIRailways, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland life, politics, Regional Development, Sinn Féin, Translink, Transport, TUV, UUP, Wales2 Comments

linguistic diversity should be a positive benefit to all

Michael McFarland Campbell

The proposal that we should have the possibility of bilingual traffic signs in Northern Ireland is seen as divisive. However, I think it could have a much more positive benefit to our country in general.

Until many, mostly political unionists and cultural Protestants, stop seeing any language use other that of English as an attack on being British, we will have a hard job in using any such language. However, as I have said before, and has been said by many, if these self same people would look back in their heritage they would find that they are likely to have ancestors who used Irish, and if not Irish, then Scots Gaelic. Scots Gaelic of course like Welsh is in use on roadsigns in other parts of their so-beloved United Kingdom. In other words, they need to relearn the history of this island and come to the understanding that diversity is often a way of unifying a whole country. Continue reading linguistic diversity should be a positive benefit to all

Rate this:

Metro, Northern Ireland, Translink, Transport1 Comment

It helps when the buses know where not to go to

Michael McFarland Campbell

With all the snow about, Northern Ireland’s public transport provider Translink has issued notices about its services. The one concerning what was formerly known as Citybus, and now know as Metro is particularly intriquing… Translink wishes to advise passengers that all Metro services will be operating via main corriders only. Surely that is corridors? The following areas will not be served due to poor road conditions: Tullycarnett, Ligoniel, Lauralgrove, Belvoir, Carrs Glen, Silverstream, Ballybeen, Mossley, Connsbrook, Braniel, Gilnahork, Lagmore and Poleglass. I’m not sure where Lauralgrove or Gilnahork are. Anyone any ideas? Continue reading It helps when the buses know where not to go to

Rate this:

iLink, Metro, NIRailways, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland life, ticketing, Translink, Transport, UlsterbusLeave a comment

Buy your Smartcard online – and a new one next month… Translink fails NI

Michael McFarland Campbell

Translink, Northern Ireland’s publicly owned transport company has been quite good at introducing new tickets which are in the form of ‘Smartcards’ for some years now. Unfortunately, unlike in London, it is not possible to top them up online. It is possible to go online and buy a ‘whole new card’. Recently I asked Translink for an update on this issue, the response is posted below. We have carefully considered how we might introduce on-line top-ups for our Smartlink products. This will require time and investment in order to significantly develop current ticketing technology. In the meantime, we have been … Continue reading Buy your Smartcard online – and a new one next month… Translink fails NI

Rate this:

Belfast, Disability, Health, HIV, Metro, news, Northern Ireland life, Translink, Transport, UlsterbusLeave a comment

Translink needs to work on access for disabled on buses

hivblogger

Having been falling asleep on the number 4a bus on the way home from the appointments of the day, I was very much awake when the bus driver let one person off at our stop, but then proceeded to drive on without letting myself, and my two escorts off as well – indeed we were still on the stairs at the time. I shouted No. STOP Everyone looked a bit surprised on the bus. Stephen says that those on the top deck (where he still was) were asking Did the driver just drive off there? And with the answer in … Continue reading Translink needs to work on access for disabled on buses

Rate this:

iLink, London, Metro, news, NIRailways, Northern Ireland life, Regional Development, ticketing, Translink, Transport, Transport for London, UlsterbusLeave a comment

not just the posts but the trains and buses too…

Michael McFarland Campbell

This afternoon while I was visiting the capital, I had a cheque that needed to be trusted to the servants of Her Majesty’s Posts. I visited the Post Office next to St James’s Park Underground Station and came across another ‘customer experience improvement scheme’. Gone are the days of the good old British queue. Now we come in, press a button on a screen, be given a ticket with a number on it, and be asked to sit down on the ‘comfortable’ chairs to await service by one of the post office clerks. Upon being called by the machine to … Continue reading not just the posts but the trains and buses too…

Rate this: