Ulsterbus

Ulsterbus is a public transport operator in Northern Ireland and operates bus services outside Belfast. It is part of Translink (the brand name for the subsidiary operating companies of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company – NITHCo), which also includes Northern Ireland Railways, Metro Belfast and Flexibus.

Services
Ulsterbus is responsible for most of the province-wide bus services in Northern Ireland. It operates twenty-two bus stations (several of which, such as those at Belfast Europa and Bangor, form integrated transport interchanges with Northern Ireland Railways stations) and 1,100 buses. Ulsterbus is charged with transporting over 65,000 children per day to school. Every July and August, around 250 vehicles are usually de-taxed. This is because not as many are needed for service due to schools finishing for summer holidays.

Ulsterbus is now in the process of modernising its fleet for better accessibility for disabled people. On 26 June 2006, Translink announced that the Leyland Leopard, synonymous with Ulsterbus, will be phased out of service. These are being replaced by the Optare Solo bus, amongst others.

Goldline
Goldline is the name given to the inter-city bus services operated by Ulsterbus. Up until the 1990s it had been called Ulsterbus Express and operated many of the same inter-city services as today, but the Belfast-Derry service was relaunched as the Maiden City Flyer with eight new coaches in about 1990, and has seen major expansion over the years: Belfast-Derry went from a thrice daily service in 1990 to half-hourly now, and many services have been expanded and introduced. Goldline services are operated from Belfast to major destinations in Northern Ireland, plus the Goldline Express Services X1/X2 (previously Service 200) to Dublin (via Dublin Airport). This service is worked jointly with Bus Éireann service X1 (previously Service 001).

There are also a number of cross-channel (North Channel) services to Britain, operated in partnership with National Express under the Eurolines banner.

Ulsterbus Foyle
For many years, Derry's internal bus network was operated as Ulsterbus's Derry City Services. It was reorganised in September 2006 into Ulsterbus Foyle. In the same way that Translink Metro was used to modernise routes in Belfast the Ulsterbus Foyle network now offers 13 set routes across the city into the popular suburban areas of the city. It is hoped that the new service will make transportation in Northern Ireland's second city a lot easier and will encourage people to make use of Derry's public transport system; meantime, regional services between Derry and other towns and villages were rebranded as Londonderry County services, sharing a District Manager with Ulsterbus Foyle.

UniLink
Ulsterbus operate the "University Link" service between the two main campuses of Northern Ireland's largest universities, Queens University of Belfast, and University of Ulster at the Jordanstown campus.

Private/Contract hire
Ulsterbus offer a private and contract hire service, with virtually any type of bus in the current fleet available for hire. On a local basis, depots will allocate buses accordingly, but in the Belfast area dedicated 'Ulsterbus Tours' buses operate. Duties include Eurolines duties 920 (Belfast – Manchester,Birmingham,London), 921 (Belfast – Preston,Manchester,Birmingham), & 923 (Belfast – Glasgow,Edinburgh). The 921 is currently operated by three dedicated Irizar Centurys purchased in 2010, (130–132), however these are being replaced in August 2013, by three tri axle Scania/Irizar i6s numbered 136–138. These are based in Stranraer.

Overall the tour pool operates about 30 buses for use on Day Tours, Eurolines work and private hire. The vast majority of these are based in Glengall St, operating out of Great Victoria Street depot.

Day tours
Ulsterbus operate "day tours" to other parts of Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland; mainly shopping and to some tourist attractions. They also have a private hire service which is in regular use by fans of the two old firm teams Rangers Football Club and Celtic Football Club going from Northern Ireland to Scotland.