THE Antrim Road and Ormeau Road have been selected by the Minister for Infrastructure to be the new routes for the Glider bus service, which will see the development of a North/South route through the city centre.

The Belfast Rapid Transit Glider Service, which was originally launched West to East in 2018, has been a huge success in the city, and has helped to modernise public transport, with an increase of 70 per cent in the number of people using the public transport system.

The decision to choose the Antrim Road was taken following a public consultation in which there were opinions raised on whether the service would be on the Antrim Road or the Shore Road. Nationalist parties had argued for the Antrim Road, while unionists representatives preferred the Shore Road.

The proposed North Belfast route will see the service go along the Antrim Road to  and South Belfast will be Ormeau Road up Saintfield Road, with proposed routes to Glengormley in the North and Carryduff in the South pending further assessment.

Minister John O’Dowd said: “I know that people across north and south Belfast have been keen to see progress on extending this successful service so I am pleased today to announce my decision on the preferred route. 

My officials will now commence the detailed design of the proposed G3 route along the Antrim Road in the north, and along the Ormeau Road and Saintfield Road in the south.

It is important that we are ambitious in terms of our public transport provision and therefore I have decided that the north and south routes should extend to Glengormley and Carryduff, respectively; however, the feasibility of such will be further assessed as part of the detailed design.  

The existing City Centre to Titanic Quarter Glider service will also be extended to connect with Queen’s University and the City Hospital.

My officials will continue to engage with residents, businesses and other stakeholders along the selected route as the detailed design is progressed.”

Chris Conway, Chief Executive of Translink has welcomed the news, stating: “Translink welcomes the latest announcement from the Department for Infrastructure on Phase 2 of Belfast’s Rapid Transit Project. 

"This important scheme will further transform public transport in the city, allowing us to build on the success of the current Glider system and working alongside the roll out of Zero Emission High Quality Bus Corridors across all of Belfast. 

"It is good news that detailed design work will now commence and we look forward to working with the Department of Infrastructure to deliver the new service as soon as possible and bring the benefits of Glider to people living in the north and south of the city, further improving connectivity across Belfast."