night time public transport to ballymena

thetope

Hello all, wondering if anyone knows of options other than translink to get from belfast centre to ballymena at night? (other than the obvious taxi which might be just a little bit pricey!) Was hoping to partake in a few mulled wines after work at the christmas market later this week, but I see that the last train to ballymena is only at 21:25? Quite annoyed at this as the last trains on the Bangor, Portadown and Larne lines are around 11pm?

absoluteutopia

The airporter bus starts at 11pm i think, then you would just need a lift/taxi from Antrim

thetope

absoluteutopia wrote: »

The airporter bus starts at 11pm i think, then you would just need a lift/taxi from Antrim

Thanks, I did notice that, but I'm actually 10 miles further on the far side of Ballymena and was gonna have to taxi that bit anyway, so from antrim that'll be a >20 miles taxi. Think the train's my only realistic option. At least it'll keep the hangover under control!

Pretani

gawa75

Good luck with that thetope. That's one of the reasons I moved out of my crappy hometown of Ballymena. Too far from the nightlife of Belfast with no affordable late night way home. Now in my current place, a taxi's only £12 home :beer:

thetope

gawa75 wrote: »

Good luck with that thetope. That's one of the reasons I moved out of my crappy hometown of Ballymena. Too far from the nightlife of Belfast with no affordable late night way home. Now in my current place, a taxi's only £12 home :beer:

I used to live about 2 miles from the city centre, but unfortunately for me (in terms of my social life) I met and fell in love with a farmer, so I am now shacked up in the glens of antrim, soon to be a farmer's wife! I still work in Belfast so on work nights which are planned sufficiently in advance i'd usually pair up with another person who lives a long way from town and share a travelodge room, but there arent any cheap ones at the mo.

Funny enough, it's in the news today that people in rural areas need 20% more income to live the same lifestyle as townies - I definitely agree with that! But I suppose my added expenditure comes from an 80 mile return commute (I *could* find a job closer to home but now really isn't the time to start changing) and living in a house that's about 3 times the size of my pad in belfast so takes 3x the amount of heating and rates (can't really complain about that either!)

I sound like a moan - the good definitely does outweigh the bad, and I am so much healthier with all the fresh air and exerciss than I was living in the city. But you do have to make your own fun sometimes - especially since a farmer can't just up and leave everything for a night all that easily!

I wonder why translink don't run late services to the country. I'm sure they'd be profitable?

Snoozle

gawa75 wrote: »

Good luck with that thetope. That's one of the reasons I moved out of my crappy hometown of Ballymena. Too far from the nightlife of Belfast with no affordable late night way home. Now in my current place, a taxi's only £12 home :beer:

I second that, when I was younger and worked in Belfast I found it really frustrating that the last bus was at 7:50pm - made the mistake of waiting one night for the 9:50pm bus in the depths of winter only to discover that it only ran during July and August. This was in pre mobile phone days, so I had a panicky wait in High St in the dark, wondering how on earth I would get home. :rotfl:

But as for Ballymena and transport, what is even more frustrating than the night time option (or lack of) is that if you live on the near-side of Ballymena you have to get a bus back into Ballymena to get onward transport to Belfast, because there is no bus service to take you to Antrim, even though it is on the way to Belfast. So you have to pay money to Translink to take an extra backwards journey that you don't want to do, and which takes more time, and then you have to pay more for your bus/train ticket to Belfast because Ballymena is further away than Antrim. Needless to say, everyone I know round here who commutes to Belfast (which is nearly everyone) does it by car....

natasha8642

thetope wrote: »

I used to live about 2 miles from the city centre, but unfortunately for me (in terms of my social life) I met and fell in love with a farmer, so I am now shacked up in the glens of antrim, soon to be a farmer's wife! I still work in Belfast so on work nights which are planned sufficiently in advance i'd usually pair up with another person who lives a long way from town and share a travelodge room, but there arent any cheap ones at the mo.

LOL. I live in the glens too (next to the forest park). THe amount of times we have had to take people (tourists mostly) places because they thought there would be buses after 6pm.

thetope

I sent translink an email to ask why there weren't late services. To their credit i got a personalised response from both the ulsterbus and NIR sections within a day or so

Ulsterbus
"At the present time there are no plans to increase the bus service on this particular route. However I have passed your email to my scheduling colleagues and your views may be considered in future Ulsterbus timetable amendments.

I have also forwarded you email to NI Railways Customer Care, who will provide a response to your rail related question."

NIR
"At Translink NI Railways we are constantly looking at ways of attracting more passengers, but as a public funded company we are facing significant budget constraints and have to carefully consider the cost benefit of any new services which would result in additional running costs.

We do receive occasional requests for a late-night service on this route, but our market research does not suggest any particular demand. It is unlikely therefore that the additional revenues would come anywhere near what would be required to off-set the operating costs involved without the need for additional Government funding. Nevertheless we will keep this matter under review."


So... doesn't seem like it's ever gonna happen but at least they were nice enough to tell me so!

CityWalk_2

heading to the Market on Saturday and having same Problem getting to Antrim later in the Night. Market ends at 10pm Last train is 9.08pm from Europa

absoluteutopia

CityWalk wrote: »

heading to the Market on Saturday and having same Problem getting to Antrim later in the Night. Market ends at 10pm Last train is 9.08pm from Europa

Best bet after 10pm is getting back to T/Patrick http://www.translink.co.uk/Services/Other-Translink-Services/Airport-Services/Airport-Express-300/