{"id":773902,"date":"2026-02-19T02:35:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T02:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/773902\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T02:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T02:35:22","slug":"belfasts-north-south-glider-wont-arrive-until-at-least-2033-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/773902\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast\u2019s north-south Glider won\u2019t arrive until at least 2033 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plans to extend the Belfast Glider<\/a> route to the north and south of the city have been put back by a further three years.<\/p>\n

It means if the already scaled-back rapid transit route<\/a> does go ahead, it won\u2019t be completed for at least another seven years.<\/p>\n

It was originally intended to be operational next year.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins<\/a> has revealed that the funding secured so far for extending the Glider service is at least \u00a376m short of the \u00a3124.5 required. The cost of the project has previously been reported to be \u00a3148m.<\/p>\n

\"Driver<\/a>\"Police<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, the Sinn F\u00e9in minister announced that the original plans to extend the northern section to Glengormley and the southern section to Carryduff were being scaled back because it was \u201cnot economically viable\u201d.<\/p>\n

To date, \u00a335m has been allocated for the Glider from the Belfast Region City Deal<\/a>, while Ms Kimmins\u2019 department has committed \u00a313m, which the minister said \u201cwill enable the commencement of a phased delivery\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said that while a \u201cdetailed delivery programme will be developed\u201d, completion of the project was conditional on \u201csecuring the additional funding required\u201d.<\/p>\n

In her response to a written Assembly question from South Belfast MLA Matthew O\u2019Toole, the minister said that if the extra funding was found, the rapid transit route extension \u201ccould be completed by 2033\u201d.<\/p>\n

Translink\u2019s Glider service began operating in 2018, using 105-passenger articulated buses to connect east Belfast, west Belfast, and the Titanic Quarter via the city centre.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Toole said the north-south Glider route was supposed to be completed in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead progress has barely started and the first buses won\u2019t run until at least 2030s \u2013 more than half a decade behind schedule,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ormeau Road is among the worst roads on these islands for congestion, air quality and the worst in Belfast for bus delays. It\u2019s deeply frustrating that meaningful improvements won\u2019t be in place until the middle of next decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SDLP representative said there was no allocation for the project in the finance minister\u2019s draft multi-year budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the minister is serious about delivering this crucial project then both she and the finance minister should put the money where their mouth is to fund this crucial upgrade to Belfasts transport infrastructure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to extend the Belfast Glider route to the north and south of the city have been put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[110140,1144,16,15],"class_list":["post-773902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-glider","tag-northern-ireland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116094967791428698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}