URBAN EXPRESSION AND DEPRESSION

Street Photography That Highlights Urban Life

glider

THE GLIDER BELFAST RAPID TRANSIT

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PHOTOGRAPHED IN MARCH 2019

I use this service every time I visit Belfast and I really like it.

Glider is a bus rapid transit system in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed to improve the efficiency of mass transit in the city by connecting East and West Belfast and the Titanic Quarter via the city centre.The service is operated by Translink.

There are two routes, G1 (West to East Belfast) and G2 (city centre to Titanic Quarter). The busways total 15.2 miles (24.5 km) in length using both dedicated bus lanes and mixed traffic lanes. Costing approximately £100m of public funds, construction started in 2014, and opened in late 2018. It uses a fleet of 18m-long Van Hool ExquiCity articulated buses. Weekday services run from soon after 5 a.m. to soon after 11 p.m. (other times at weekends and public holidays), operating on a 7-9 minute interval, reducing to 4-6 minutes at peak times.

The vehicles are Van Hool ExquiCity 18 articulated buses of a so-called Light tram design with three doors and approximately 18 metres in length. The interior is a mixture of seating and standing, plus free WiFi, USB sockets, real-time visual and audible information and CCTV. The diesel hybrid electrical engines emit a low level of pollution and noise complying with environmental concerns. In October 2017 the Glider vehicle was unveiled at the Busworld Europe exhibition in Belgium.

MY VISIT TO THE CATALYST SCIENCE PARK

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MY VISIT TO THE CATALYST SCIENCE PARK A RATHER BLEAK HI-TECH INDUSTRIAL AREA IN BELFAST

If you wish to visit the area use the Glider G2 service but off-peak this service only runs every thirty minutes. When I visited there was no sign of any facilities even at the HMS Caroline museum.

The area is home to at least 160 enterprises in science, technology and knowledge based industries, its current tenants include Citi, Novosco, Dow, Path XL, 8over8, Wurkhouse, Taggled, IRP Commerce, Automated Intelligence, IBM and Qualcom. Amazon has a warehouse in the area.

Catalyst, formerly known as the Northern Ireland Science Park, was established in March 1999 to create a self-sustaining, internationally recognised, knowledge-based science park in Northern Ireland offering a commercial and research driven centre for knowledge-based industries.

The park is headquartered in the Titanic Quarter, Queen’s Island, Belfast, and hosts a range of international and local technology related companies.[It currently has seven buildings in operation offering 210,000 square feet (20,000 m2) of workspace Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. 2700 engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs and executives work across the four Catalyst sites in Belfast, Derry and Ballymena. The longstanding Chief Executive Dr Norman Apsley retired in November 2018 and was replaced by Steve Orr. 2008 marked the first year of commercial independence from Government. The Park was re-branded Catalyst Inc in 2016 and Catalyst in 2019.

Glider is a bus rapid transit system in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed to improve the efficiency of mass transit in the city by connecting East and West Belfast and the Titanic Quarter via the city centre. The service is operated by Translink.

There are two routes, G1 (West to East Belfast) and G2 (city centre to Titanic Quarter). The busways total 15.2 miles (24.5 km) in length using both dedicated bus lanes and mixed traffic lanes. Costing approximately £100m of public funds, construction started in 2014, and opened in late 2018. It uses a fleet of 18m-long Van Hool ExquiCity articulated buses. Weekday services run from soon after 5 a.m. to soon after 11 p.m. (other times at weekends and public holidays), operating on a 7-9 minute interval, reducing to 4-6 minutes at peak times.

Glider G2 services link the city centre to Titanic Quarter. It operates as a continual loop passing Belfast City Hall, and allowing travel between the Odyssey, Titanic Building and surrounding areas. Stops are located at St George’s Market (May Street), City Hall (May Street), Wellington Place, Chichester Street, Custom House Square, Odyssey, Titanic, Thompson Dry Dock and Catalyst.

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