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Visit to Belfast in 2024 (by Shane Conway)
Page last updated on 4th September 2024
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On April 27th 2024, I attended the revamped Irish Transport Heritage clsssic bus event in Belfast, with a nice collection of buses on display. Details of that event are on this page, and after our return to Lanyon Place station around 17.00 we had an hour to spare before the train home. So off we set for a quick walking tour of the immediate area......
Quite close to the station is the Waterfront concert venue, which I visited almost ten years earlier, on May 20th 2014. On that night the legendary Seekers were doing their only Irish date on the 50th anniversary tour, which was a most memorable night. The sight of around 2,000 people leaving the venue afterwards and heading off into the Belfast streets was amazing, considering that maybe ten or fifteen years earlier, such a sight would have been unheard of. On my second visit the place was silent and locked, and I stood in silence for a few minutes recalling May 2014, and the sheer talent of those four Australians....
Chicester Street provides the first sighting of the modern Belfast transport scene. This machine is one of 30 Van Hool bendi-buses bought by Citybus in 2018 and used on the two Glider routes, G1 and G2, in the city. Numbered 3200 to 3229, here we see 3221 about to turn left into Victoria Street on its way to Dundonald.
Further along Chicester Street, this more conventional bus, an Ulsterbus this time, appeared in view. 2525 is a 2021 built Wright Streetdeck 40 seater bus working on route 563B to Whitehead. The previous 2525 (in the Citybus fleet) was a 1982 Bristol RELL6G, its number being previously on a Citybus ex London Transport AEC Merlin. Three very different vehicles of different eras....
At the city centre end of Chicester Street we found YUI 1545, which is Citybus 3575, an electric powered Wright Streetdeck double deck new in April 2022. In front of it is a Wright bodied Volvo B5TL, 2385 (SFZ 9385) which dates from September 2014. Both buses are in the allover magenta colour, or pink as some of its detractors call it. 2385 was previously applied to an Ulsterbus Bristol RELL6G new in June 1980
Turning into Donegall Square and we find KFZ 9917, which was new in September 2012 as Citybus 917. This is a Wrights bodied Volvo B7RLE, again in the magenta livery.
Also in Donegall Square was Ulsterbus 2101, a Wright bodied Volvo B5TL, allegedly working the 923 route. The 923 is Belfast - Ayr - Glasgow, so its unlikely to be going that far! Also the last departure of the day is at 14:20, so who knows? The airport service is actually route 300. Of note is the "T" (for Translink?) on the back -- in days of yore every trolleybus in the city had a large T below the back window.
Heading back along May Street towards Lanyon Place, this was the next bus to be snapped on camera. It was another of the rally entrants, but it was nice to get a photo of it on the move. Its a late model example of the classic Ulsterbus Alexander bodied Leyland Leopard, fleet number 280, new in June 1982.
Further up May Street, I found this long closed premises bearing the title Belfast City Transport Social Club. B.C.T. ceased their involvement in local transport as long ago as April 1973, although it may have remained open beyond that date for a time. An interesting relic from past times.
The final photo of the day and an all too brief walk around of Belfast, was this six car train as it is approaching Lanyon Place station. Originally one of twenty three-coach sets bought in 2012, the final seven sets were extended to six vehicles in 2021 with the purchase of new rolling stock. In this view the train has just come off the bridge over the river Lagan.
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