The lack of public transport continues to harm our night time economy…

Philip O’Neill is a retired civil servant and music lover from Belfast

I don’t live in Belfast, but I am looking forward to going to a gig in Belfast this evening. I enjoy live music and live shows, but know that in Belfast we can be fairly limited in what shows we get here, so I make the most of what we have.

I will drive this evening as our bus service is fairly pathetic and finishes at 10.00pm. The topic of public transport and joined up thinking has left me fairly frustrated, particularly in recent gigs and the number of people who leave early. I have seen this at shows in the Opera House, gigs at the SSE, Ulster Hall etc. I spoke to a couple on the way out of one of the gigs and asked them if they didn’t like the group. They replied they loved the group but had to catch a bus home. If they missed that bus, they could no longer depend on taxis around Belfast to get them home, as taxis are non-existent mid-week.

This is a real issue, and tickets for concerts and shows are not cheap. However what strikes me is this is nothing new, it has been happening for years. Translink will tell you they have little demand for services after 11.00 pm, although they also confirmed their Christmas experiment with late night buses was a success. So should Translink increase the numbers of late night services helping plug a recognised gap in the market and allowing more people to socialise in the City Centre, or is there another alternative?

Perhaps there is. Why do concerts, plays etc start when they do? Why 8.30 or 9.00 pm start thus ensuring the event goes on after 10.00 pm. Why can’t promoters or those who run the venues and are aware of restricted transport not take this into consideration. If a play was to start 7.30 instead of 8.00 that should be doable. If a main act was to take the stage at 8.00 rather than 9.00 pm it would help in two ways. Firstly helping the audience make transport connections, also ensuring the audience is not as pissed as they would be for a 9.00 pm start.

I believe Belfast has a night-time Czar; perhaps this is an issue they can address with some of the larger venues. Tonight I will arrive in Belfast in my car, go straight to the gig and home again. If I could be assured I could make public transport, I would be on the bus, having a meal and a drink before the gig as I know many others would.

Soapbox

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