A SINN Féin councillor has been working to ensure Translink’s Falls Road depot will be able to facilitate more sustainable vehicles, in line with Translink’s ambitious 2030 strategy shifting towards greener transport.
Cllr Rónan McLaughlin has been liaising with Translink to ensure the Falls Road depot has the capacity for the electrical and hydrogen fleet as part of Translink’s strategy to eradicate all diesel vehicles from their fleet.
“This is a project I’ve been working on for some time. Currently what you have within the Falls Road depot is a lot of the older diesel type buses," he said.
“The only depots that currently have room for the electrical fleet or hydrogen is down the Short Strand or in the Titanic. The Falls Road depot is right in the middle of a community, it’s right in the middle of an urban park, so we don’t want diesel polluting buses going up residential streets next to kids playing.
Cllr McLaughlin said he will be engaging with Translink and the Falls Road depot to “get the necessary infrastructure by the end of summer 2023 to facilitate electric and hydrogen powered vehicles.”
“We saw through the last Assembly that we have the historic Climate Change Act through. That obviously sets some strong ambitions for where we want to go as a society.
"We also have to think of the communities, it needs to be a just transition so that means we need to bring communities along with us. How we try and do that is so make sure there’s a better environment for them and there’s clean air.”
