More trains on Larne Line from next week

Northern Ireland Railways credits the introduction last year of 20 new Class 4000 trains across the province for the increasing popularity of rail travel.

The new trains have already started to deliver significant improvements in service reliability and accessibility and as well as increasing the number of services offered by Translink, there will now be over 20 per cent of additional seating capacity across the network, doubling many busy commuter trains from three carriages to six.

Translink says there will be a huge number of benefits to passengers resulting from the new timetable, most significantly on the Larne and Londonderry lines, where there will be more frequent services between Belfast and Whitehead and an hourly service between Belfast and Coleraine. The majority of all Larne line services will operate through to Great Victoria Street Station.

From Sunday, there will also be more services on the Bangor line calling at the new Titanic Quarter train station, serving the surrounding businesses and Belfast Metropolitan College.

Mal McGreevy, general manager of rail services at Translink, said: “We have steadily been making investments into our rail network, rolling stock and infrastructure and this autumn we launched free passenger WIFI on trains and most Goldline coach services, as well as Journey Check, a real-time train information system for NI Railways passengers.

“This new timetable is the next phase of improvements to make our services even more flexible, attractive and easy for customers to use.

“The proof of success is in the steadily growing numbers of passenger now choosing the train as their preferred way to travel. In 2011/2012, a record 10.7 million people used the train, which is a 70 per cent increase over the last decade, and we are on target to exceed 11 million passenger journeys this year.

“With these new enhancements, together with our range of great-value tickets, we look forward to welcoming many more new customers onboard in 2013.”

Passengers can access up-to-date timetable information by using Translink’s online journey planner at www.translink.co.uk and new timetables are also available online. Passengers can also call the contact centre on 02890 666630. Printed timetables are available at stations.