All aboard for new late night bus service

A BUS company is to start a new service between Lisburn and Belfast offering late night revellers and Christmas shoppers an alternative way to get home, starting from the first weekend in December.

Tiger Coaches, which has been running for two years, will become the first private company to offer a late-night bus service between the cities since the 1940s.

The Department of Regional Development granted the Moira firm the licence to operate the route on Friday and Saturday night and it will run into the small hours of the morning

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The first bus will leave Lisburn Bus Station at 11.30pm - which is when the Translink service stops - and stop at bus shelters along the route at Dunmurry, Finaghy and the Lisburn Road.

Siobhan McCormick, who has been a bus driver for the past 15 years, has been running Tiger Coaches for the past two years.

"I worked for Translink until I had a family which was when I opened my private bus company," she said "I saw a real need to get people home safely. All too often you see people trying to flag down taxis to get home when there just aren't enough taxis to go around.

"With Christmas coming the problems of getting home will only get worse.

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"We have already had a positive feedback from the public. If there is a big enough demand we may extend our hours."

The buses will leave Lisburn at 11.30pm, 12.30am and 1.30am. The return bus will leave Queen Street in Belfast at 12 midnight, 1am and 2am.

"We could not get a licence for other days just for a Friday and Saturday," Siobhan said.

There will be a flat fare of 3 single.