Skip to content Skip to footer

Travel Card User Guides

dayLink

A dayLink smart card provides unlimited Metro and Glider day travel for adults and children. You can load your dayLink card with 1, 5 or 10 days and use your travel whenever you want. You don’t have to travel on consecutive days and dayLink smartcards can be topped-up with more travel when you need it. You can top-up with another 1 day’s travel on the bus or with 1, 5 or 10 day’s travel at our Translink top-up and sales outlets.

You can buy all day travel which means you can travel any day, anytime on the Metro and Glider network. dayLink cards can be used on all Metro and Glider or on an Ulsterbus service scheduled to pick up passengers within the Metro and Glider operating area, plus you can top-up with the driver with 1 day’s travel on board Metro or at Ticket Vending Machines at Glider halts.
 
You can travel whenever you want as any unused day travel remains stored on your card until you decide to use it on a day of your choice. For example you can use a dayLink card topped-up with 5 days travel on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of one week and Wednesday of the following week.

Using dayLink on Metro

  1. Hold your dayLink card to the target on the ticket machine reader with the front of the card facing upwards.
  2. If there is at least one day’s travel loaded on your card it will read successfully. The machine will bleep once and the green light will illuminate.
  3. The machine will issue you with a paper ticket showing the details of your journey. The ticket must be retained for inspection.
  4. If there is no travel loaded on your card the red light will appear. You will then need to pay the bus driver to load one day’s travel onto your card.
  5. The machine will issue a ticket receipt. Please keep this ticket as it is your ticket for your first journey on that day.

Using dayLink on Glider

  1. Hold your dayLink card to the target on the validator device.
  2. When the card reads successfully, the validator device will bleep once. A green tick will display on the screen at the top.
  3. If a red screen appears, your card has not been validated for travel and you should contact Translink. Please choose an alternative payment method for travel as Customer Revenue Protection Officers patrol the Glider network to ensure everyone travelling has a valid ticket or smartcard.
  4. The validator device does not issue a ticket or receipt, it will deduct one journey from a dayLink card valid to make a journey.
  5. If a Metro bus arrives at a Glider halt and you wish to board but have already validated your card for Glider, just tap your dayLink on the ticket machine beside the driver when you board Metro. No additional journey will be deducted if you are travelling in the same direction and within 90 minutes of validation at the Glider halt.

dayLink Fares

Top-Up on Metro and ticket vending machines at Glider halts.

  Adult Child
1 Day £3.70

£1.85

Top-Up at agents and ticket vending machines at Glider halts.

(Metro Kiosk, PayPoint, Smartlink Agents & selected Translink sales outlets)

  Adult Child
1 Day £3.70 £1.85
5 Days £17.00 £8.50
10 Days £34.00 £17.00

Buying and topping-up dayLink

You can buy your dayLink card and first top-up of travel at:

  • Europa Buscentre, Lanyon Place Station, Great Victoria Street Station
  • Smartlink Agents within greater Belfast
  • Visit Belfast, Donegall Square North

You can top-up dayLink cards with 1 day’s travel with the driver on board a Metro bus and you can also top-up on board any Ulsterbus service scheduled to pick-up passengers in the Metro operating area. When you top-up on the bus with one day’s travel your one day of travel starts to expire from the time you load it onto your card.

Top-ups of 5 or 10 days travel are not available on buses. You can top-up 1, 5 or 10 day’s travel at:

  • PayPoint Agents across Northern Ireland
  • Ticket Vending Machines at Glider Halts
  • Smartlink Agents within Greater Belfast
  • Europa Buscentre, Lanyon Place Station, Great Victoria Street Station
  • Visit Belfast, Donegall Square North

You can top-up your dayLink card with 1, 5 or 10 days travel, or in varying periods of validity e.g. 1 day followed by 10 days followed by 5 days.

Further info and T&Cs

Metro / Glider dayLink Terms and Conditions