Crisis-hit Northern Ireland public transport provider Translink will next week announce a public consultation on potentially dramatic service cuts.
These follow 2014-15 losses of £14m and a reduction of just under 20% in company funding from the regional Department of Regional Development - leaving the troubled company contemplating around 150 redundancies.
Minister Danny Kennedy, who has insisted on the consultation, has also firmly rejected a proposed second fare rise in 2015, following February’s 4% increase.
At the same time, while challenging Translink to protect its ‘significant growth in passenger numbers’ over recent years, he has admitted that transport is ‘most likely’ to be hardest hit by cuts in his £60m departmental budget.
Chief executive David Strahan has warned the regional Stormont Assembly of the risk that Translink could go under, stating: 'If we do not take action Translink is not a sustainable organisation and it will not be here in the future.'
A spokeswoman for Translink told Transport Network, ‘We are reviewing how we can best design our network to work within our allocated resources while protecting the routes most important to our customers.'
The company would, she pledged, engage with local stakeholders on specific services.
Leaked documents already indicate reduced bus schedules in Belfast, with 20 services being withdrawn altogether in other towns.
