Translink (Northern Ireland)

Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHC), operating asTranslink, is a public corporation providing public transport in Northern Ireland. It operates services including NI Railways, Ulsterbus, Goldliner, Metro, Foyle Metro, and Glider.

Translink provides services all over Northern Ireland and also to Dublin, in a partnership deal with its counterpart in the Republic of Ireland, Córas Iompar Éireann (CIÉ), through its subsidiary Iarnród Éireann. It also provides local bus services in many towns and cities all over Northern Ireland including Bangor, Ballymena, Omagh, Craigavon and Antrim. The Metro service operates throughout Belfast, right out to outlying areas including Newtownabbey, Dundonald, Newtownbreda and Dunmurry, with the Foyle Metro service operating in Derry.

NITHCo was established in 1967 to take over the railway and bus services of the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA), namely Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) and Ulsterbus. In 1996 the Translink organisation was created to integrate the services of the Ulster Transport Authority as well as Citybus Limited (Belfast only – successor to the Belfast Corporation Transport Department). Citybus is now known as Metro.