To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to outline the reasons for the delay, in relation to the initially published proposals, in implementing the new Belfast Rapid Transit system from Belfast city centre to Finaghy Road North.

In 2015 the operational date for the Belfast Rapid Transit (BRT) system was revised from 2017 to September 2018. The implementation of the BRT system is not only dependent on the completion of the BRT road infrastructure and procurement of vehicles, but also on the delivery of a number of significant interdependent projects. These include:

Translink’s Ticketing Replacement project – which is required to be in place to provide off-board ticketing for BRT; and

Translink’s Duncrue Depot project – which will house and maintain approximately 100 buses, including the new fleet of BRT vehicles.

In 2015, due to budgetary uncertainty, it became clear that it would not be possible to deliver all the elements to enable BRT to become operational in 2017. It was therefore decided to revise the operational date to September 2018. This revised operational date was assessed as achievable by an independent external Project Assessment Review.

Implementation of the first phase of BRT, which will connect East Belfast, West Belfast and Titanic Quarter via the city centre, is progressing well and is on schedule for the commencement of services in September 2018.