Ben Lowry: Public money is often spent badly in Northern Ireland so there is plenty for key services like Translink if it is prioritised

A Glider will pull up and people will cram on until every standing space is filled. The reason is simple — there are not enough Gliders. But Stormont has money for them, if only it would prioritise such public expenditure, which it doesn’t.

Translink said within weeks of the 2018 Glider launch that the new service was so popular it caused a big rise in demand, a claim lazily picked up by much of the media.

It might partly be true, but the real reason for the cramming – as I revealed in this newspaper – was a plunge in rush hour seating capacity from around 900 an hour to around 450. While the overall capacity was roughly the same as the number 4 bus it replaced, the Gliders have a far higher standing-to-seating ratio than buses and so the number of seats was much fewer.

Inevitably there was going to be much more standing than on the 4 bus, even without any passenger increase. The cramming was, in other words, entirely foreseeable.

Now at rush hour a Glider rarely has free seats between Knock Road and the city centre, which takes 20 minutes at busy times.

This makes it worse in some respects than the London tube, because while the underground is often crammed it has a higher ‘churn’ — a tube train might be packed for two stops, then almost empty if hundreds of people get off at a busy station, then fill up again, etc. Seats become free more quickly.

That is not so on a Glider from Dundonald to Belfast. It might be full as far out as Ulster Hospital, and if so you stand the whole journey, because few people get off.

At peak times Gliders run every 7 minutes but inevitably traffic causes them to bunch and so there might be a 2/3 minute interval between Gliders (in which case the latter one is likely to have seats) or a 10/11 minute wait (in which case the Glider is crammed when it arrives).

Belfast is not a mega city like London. An advantage of a small city is that travel should be easier.

Some popular rail routes into Belfast are also often over crowded.

How many Translink executives, senior civil servants or Stormont MLAs or Spads have to stand on public transport for 20+ minutes each way in their daily commute?

Never let it be said that this lack of services is the result of lack of money from London. It is partly due to political and administrative choices that this society has made.

Translink of course has a difficult job. It is costly to run a comprehensive service on under-used parts of its network. I have taken buses to Bangor which at points had only two or three passengers.

Yet such lightly used buses are indispensable for some people, often on low incomes. It adds to the financial pressures Translink cited this week. But other popular transport services are beyond capacity.

A relative of mine, aged 80+, recently drove to Glider park and ride at Dundonald, to take advantage of its pioneering link from east to west Belfast, so he could go to an appointment at the Royal Victoria Hospital and avoid RVH parking queues. But the park and ride was full when he arrived, before 10am.

It is a similar story at train stations. Bangor and Bangor West can’t cope with parking demand. Yet we should celebrate and be investing in such transport succes.

Instead, we facilitated perks such as cutting the age of free transport eligibility to 60 (from 65) at a time of rising life expectancy.

Stormont has not even barred under 65 recipients of such passes from using their cards before 9.30am when younger people – rushing to work, paying full fare, raising a family – have to commute.

This is an example of inter-generational unfairness, something our MLAs never seem to speak about (the idea that western nations have tilted public spend too much to older generations).

What about curbing free travel for spouses or partners of Translink staff? If instead they got discounted travel (say 50% off) then partners would be contributing to Translink amid its cash crisis.

In multiple other ways MLAs have endorsed freebies, such as giving free prescriptions to the many people who can easily afford them.

Money has been wasted by not embracing more efficient hospital usage, as advised by various experts since Maurice Hayes 20 years ago.

Or by the failure to fine people who miss free GP appointments.

MLAs recently decided that the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ (which they never describe as ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’) must never apply to Northern Ireland. The cost will be £100m over four years.

What about road tolls? Stormont after 1998 could have tolled two routes, Belfast to the border (towards Dublin) and Belfast-Londonderry, which might have generated sums akin to the M1 toll at Drogheda (circa £20m a year). We’d now have a motorway on both routes.

Unionists above all should be politically, as well as morally, wary of the begging bowl. When they join republicans in saying the multi-billion UK subsidy of Northern Ireland isn’t enough, it could fuel Whitehall thinking that NI is nuisance with a take, take, take mentality.

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

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