Editorial: ​Titanic Quarter is just the place to test a hi tech driverless bus service

​​A driverless bus service is set to begin in the harbour area of Belfast.

The service will run between the Titanic Quarter railway halt and the Catalyst Science Park, a distance of about a mile.

This is an exciting new service, and it is being trialled in just the right place.

The Titanic Quarter train station for decades was Bridge End.

It was used by shipyard workers but otherwise isolated from day to day life, being lifeless and bleak at night.

Now that part of the city is one of the most innovative.

Not only is the Titanic exhibition located there, there are also hotels and upmarket apartments.

The SSE Arena is one of the best of its type on these islands.

The new public records office is in the vicinity, as are a learning campus and start-up tech companies.

In other words, a once bustling port that became a wasteland is now perhaps the most modern part of Northern Ireland. Where better to place a cutting edge bus technology?

Most people are naturally nervous at the idea of anything driverless, and the prospect of a serious crash caused by a malfunction.

But it is entirely possible, indeed likely, that driverless technology will one day soon be proven to be safer than human controlled vehicles.

Not so long ago rail passengers were alarmed at the idea of driverless trains but these have for decades been operating on parts of the London underground network.

While driverless buses and trains put their operators out of work, they make public transport cheaper to run and make it easier to run new routes.

That in turn creates jobs in other spheres.

This so-called 'Harlander' project in the Titanic Quarter gets under way late next year.

It can't start soon enough.