Translink Reviews 548

What is the point in spending £340M on a new station and £17M on upgrading an existing station if you can’t even get the basics right? Let’s encourage people to use public transport and then on the night of a major soccer match put insufficient trains on. We know what to expect but feck the travelling public!

Me and my friend got on the wrong bus and everyone else got dropped off and we go on the wrong one so we went down to tell the bus driver and he said it’s okay where do you need to go I’ll drop you there we are so grateful for that man he needs a raise this was at 17:00 we got dropped off 11b at November 15th 2024 give this man a raise please at least £200 - £100 raise please

Service is an absolute joke. Waiting on the 10m this morning. Comes up on app as cancelled. How can you just cancel a bus when there's no other bus that serves that route? This is a bus that goes to the royal hospital. Total disgrace.

Ever heard of hell week? Try hell year. That sums up the last twelve months of using Translink 'services'. Heads should roll for this chaos. Ah but no....I was forgetting - it is not a private company. No competition. This outfit do what they like, cause as much disruption as is possible, pull services off at will...and still keep their jobs and their license to operate.

I was on the 300 a service from aldergrove to Belfast today at 15.50. Thee drivers attitude was an absolute disgrace. I rushed out of the airport as the bus was due to leave. I got to the ticket machine and my card was declined. I noticed the queue for the bus had almost cleared and the bus would be leaving any second. I boarded the bus and asked the driver could I pay with cash he replied telling me " your supposed to buy a ticket at the ticket machine like everyone else". I explained my cad was rejected and handed him £10 for the £9 fare and he literally slammed my change down. Translink has seriously gone to the dogs.

We went first class on a train and the food and comfort was good but a rude staff member came and said to to the woman beside me "have you got any rubbish" which the woman replied "yes I do" so she said there was a tissue and the woman very rudely and disturbing fully said "I'm not touching your dirty tissue" unacceptable!!

Honestly, a complete joke of a "public" service. Constant time table changes, buses don't show up, buses are late, buses from city Hall dont open their doors until it's time to leave, app doesn't work, drivers are ignorant, some don't understand what an accelerator pedal is etc. Way more issues to note here.
Put a tender out or Sell the services/routes to a competitor, like so many cities do. Make it worth our while spending money on and relying on public transport!

10.36 pm from Belfast all stops to Lisburn was 45 mins late. Last week it was 20 mins late. I'm wondering how this inefficiency is acceptable. Its a huge embarrassment given the time and money invested in transport. Decided to write a review while waiting for the train, that wasn't even working either ...

10 minutes late is on time if you work for translink! Don't even make announcements anymore,it is just the norm. Do they realise people need to get connecting bus and train services.

Just travelling from lisburn to grand central station belfast. On tge train, as a disabled traveller I found all the staff very helpful and willing to provide the ramp fir access to and from tge train. Train comfortable and clean. Grand central station staff very helpful.

Translink are a national embarrassment.

Buses/trains don't show up when they are supposed to, if at all.
I've been on a train from Belfast to Derry; we got as far as Coleraine and they CHANGED THE DESTINATION of the train to Portrush instead! We were told if we want to get to Derry, get off in Coleraine and wait for the next service.

Timetables often do not match the journey planner. Half the services don't accept card payments while the others do. There are still no services using the new Dungiven bypass that we spent millions on. The app is a joke. The journey planner is pathetic.

Corruption. Incompetence. Greed. The hallmarks of Translink.

You look at the excellent marketing and wonderful presentation, unfrortnatly reality is bitter and reminds you to avoid this service.

Terrible journey from Antrim to Portrush today. We arrived at Antrim station this morning to a large crowd of passengers on the platform which was very unusual as it was off peak at 10.40. The train arrived and loads of people were piling off the train along with a member of Translink staff. My husband asked him what was happening and he walked past us and shouted this train is being evacuated. We didn't know what to do so we walked down the platform where another member of Translink staff was standing and asked him why we weren't allowed on the train. He said you are being bused so go to the bus station. A passenger said to us that he had heard someone say the train was going back to Belfast. It was absolutely chaotic and the Translink staff were just standing around looking confused. Eventually after following the crowd we got on to the substitute coach. I have to say it was abysmal, it hadn't been cleaned and there were empty drinks cans and sweet papers everywhere. The bus took twice as long as the usual train journey but it was the lack of organisation and communication at Antrim train station which was unbelievable. Surely they could have made an announcement telling the passengers what was happening and what arrangements were in place to resolve the issue. We don't have many trains in Northern Ireland so surely it can't be that difficult. It was a very long day!!!

Almost every time my wife and I travel from Castlerock to Belfast or Londonderry the train is always running late sometimes up to half an hour. This has to be the worst run train service in the UK. Something is badly wrong with the management and needs to be sorted out.

Got a train on friday 18th october.from belfast to portrush.there was a lovely conducter on the train he told us we had to change at coleraine and he would be on the same train and not to rush as there was no hurry. There was another translink worker a man standing who told us hurry up as the train was leaving he was very rude. so we went to get the lift and you could only get 2 passengers with 2 small suitcases in it thats how small it was they have just spent millions of pounds updating the train stations and the lifts r pathetic.why not put escalators in because the lifts do not accomedate customers.

Would give it zero if i could, 12a 12b buses never come, 2 hrs waiting last tuesday and 2hrs 15 on friday, guy from complaints had a very bad ignorant attitude, i had a bus driver scream at me when i asked him if the bus was coming after almost 3 hours waiting last year he shouted eff off get the eff away from me infront of everyone, i had a 6ft 5 man verbally abuse me and intimidate me because i got on bus before him, the bus drivers are the most ignorant unfriendly drivers i have ever met, they need competition from other bus companies as they get away with everything because they are the only bus company we have. I attend hospital a lot and now have to fork out for taxi's as i cant rely on a bus, and dont start me about the last stop being the start of royal avenue, i will be contacting my mp as complaints do nothing

Found grand central eventually, ticket and seat numbers on digital receipt useless as scanners did not work and another paper ticket obligatory after generated from the original bar code sent as ticket? Why on earth would this be required ?? Not like anywhere else in Europe where you simply get a ticket that works when you pay! And get email with barcode and seat number( not working today)
On return journey got as far as door of train not allowed on because I had t the paper ticket although receipt and seat number at purchase, so I do have to ask could you please send someone to see how this is done in the rest of Europe? With less people confusion and aggression from staff ! At least several steps a waste of money which puts up prices which are not good either!

With out a doubt, Translink is the worst transport
system I have ever come across. Late trains, cancelled
buses , unhelpful staff. As far as the new Hub , a total
waste of money, staff standing around doing nothing.
A complete waste of tax payers money.

Where to start lol...

- The app they try to force you to use is barely functional, works about 50% of the time. When it doesn't work good luck getting the train/bus you've already paid for
- Has to be one of the most expensive public transport systems in Europe if not the world, daily tickets booked well ahead of time work out around £20 a day for a 50 mile round trip
- As reliable as my dead grandparents, trains regularly are delayed 15-20 mins with no recourse to get compensation like any other public transport system. Every now and again buses or trains don't show, if that happens you're screwed - be prepared to pay for your TransLink ticket + the price of a taxi
- The new Grand Central station is a signal blind spot with currently barely functional wifi, even if you've paid for a ticket there's a decent chance the app won't load or you'll have no signal. If that happens you'll get zero sympathy from the staff, was told it was my fault for not loading up my ticket before trying to the station
- For a public transport network that costs a fortune and barely functions they have a hell of a lot of staff standing around doing seemingly nothing
- On a 40 minute train journey expect to have your ticket checked to get onto the train, 2-3 times again during your 40 min journey and then again to leave the station

An absolute farce of a company, disgusted my tax goes towards funding these feckless cowboys.
If you want to get anywhere in NI I would recommend driving, these useless layabouts would struggle to run a bath.. let alone one of the smallest countries in the world's transport networks.

Well money spent on a new station and still the f****** trains can't run on time. Getting to be a bit of a phish take now, meant to be a train at 18.01, now 18.13 and no sign. Translink are the gift that just keeps giving eh