21st September 2007

Dear Colleagues,

Twice a year we ask 2500 passengers what they think of our services and complete 2700 ‘mystery shopper’ observations – this is our Passenger’s Charter Monitoring. The results for the first half of this year show that our passengers rate Translink bus and rail services the best ever since records began in 1994.

Metro, NI Railways and Ulsterbus all showed ongoing improvements in the things most important to passengers - punctuality, value for money, passenger comfort, helpfulness and cleanliness.

The research also showed that bus and rail services beat the 95% ‘on time’ target set out in the Passenger’s Charter.

Veronica Palmer, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Co. (NITHC), said, “These results are very good news; a real success story for Northern Ireland - our passengers are seeing the benefits of our programme of change and improvement. The significant investment in public transport in Northern Ireland is clearly paying off; this is backed up by the continuing growth in passenger numbers across bus and rail services.”

“We - all who work in Translink - have delivered real improvements in bus and rail services – more frequency, better punctuality, accessibility and comfort. We are fortunate to have a strong champion for public transport in Conor Murphy MP MLA, the Minister for Regional Development. I would thank him and our DRD colleagues for their help and support.”

“Public transport in Northern Ireland is a big success but we cannot be complacent. Partnership is key to delivering better bus and rail services and everyone has a role to play if we are to continue to improve services and attract more passengers. In particular, working with our partners in Roads Service we need to do more to reduce congestion and lock in this cycle of growth. Most immediately, this means more priority for bus passengers and more investment to expand capacity on the railways.”

“Excellent public transport is the right choice for the community, for the environment and for sustainable development.”

Can I also take this opportunity to offer my congratulations to you all – there are not many organisations who could boast such a set of results. Please keep up the good work as we still have much to do.

Philip O'Neill, Acting Chief Executive

These results are very good news; a real success story for Northern Ireland.