Northern Ireland

Taxis permitted to use Belfast city centre bus lanes

Private hire taxis and Ubers will be able to bus lanes at Shaftesbury Square and Great Victoria Street from 6am on Wednesday morning

Pacemaker Press 17-12-2024: OÕDowd announces Taxi access into Belfast Bus Lanes Infrastructure Minister John OÕDowd has announced that taxis will be permitted to use a number of bus lanes in Belfast city centre over the festive period. A Temporary Traffic Regulation has been put in place which will allow Class A and Class C taxis to use certain lanes, effective from 6am on the 18 December 2024. Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press
Class A and C taxis are to allowed in bus lanes in the run-up to Christmas. PICTURE: ARTHUR ALLISON/PACEMAKER
By John Manley, Politics Correspondent

Taxis will be allowed to use bus lanes in Belfast city centre to “alleviate” congestion in the run-up to Christmas.

Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd has announced that class A and C taxis will be permitted to use city-bound bus lanes at Shaftesbury Square and Great Victoria Street from 6am on Wednesday morning.

The announcement has been welcomed in some quarters but criticised elsewhere.

Alliance infrastructure spokesperson Peter McReynolds said the move “will not address the congestion issues we are facing”.

The country-bound routes taxis can use are Great Victoria Street (Howard Street – Bruce Street), Bruce Street and Dublin Road.

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Roadworks related to the Belfast’s new £340m Grand Central Station have caused congestion in the south and west of the city centre in recent weeks.

The minister said he was “committed to bringing forward measures which will help alleviate the traffic congestion in the city centre”.

Stormont’s Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd has welcomed the funding announcement
Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd. PICTURE: NIALL CARSON (Niall Carson/PA)

In October, Mr O’Dowd said he planned to introduce a pilot scheme to permit taxis – including private hire taxis and Ubers – to use city centre bus lanes to “help support the industry and ease traffic”.

He said his officials were completing the necessary legislative work and that the consultation period for that scheme would begin “very early in the new year”.

Sustainable transport campaigners criticised the plan.

“Belfast is a thriving city and I would encourage anyone planning to travel to the city centre, especially over the Christmas period, to plan their journey, use public transport if possible and if travelling by car factor in extra time for your journey,” Mr O’Dowd said.

“DFI (Department for Infrastructure) will continue to work closely with partners in the coming days and weeks.”

The Sinn Féin minister said he shared the “common goal of wanting to keep Belfast moving, while balancing the needs of everyone who needs to use the city’s roads and footpaths”.

DUP infrastructure committee chair Deborah Erskine said the move was a “welcome step forward” that she hoped would help ease traffic congestion and “send out a positive message for our retailers”.

“However, this would also have been helpful over the past few weeks since the problem was first highlighted,” she said.

Mr McReynolds said allowing taxis into bus lanes “only encourages private vehicle use to the detriment of other forms of transport”.

“I would strongly urge the minister to reverse this regressive measure and instead see the benefit to reducing car dominance in Belfast and instead make a more public transport, pedestrian and cyclist friendly Belfast,” he said.

Roads blogger Wesley Johnston tweeted: “This makes no sense to me - it’s adding more vehicles to the one main thing we’ve invested in to speed up buses.”