Translink consultation on Irish bi-lingual displays on Derry City buses given extension

Translink is engaging in a public consultation on the proposed display of English/Irish bi-lingual destination screens for place names on buses operating on Derry City Services. Subject to consultation, it is planned to pilot the bi-lingual destination screens on the Slievemore Route, with potential to expand to other routes in the city. We would urge as many people as possible to express their views during this consultation period which has been extended until 26^th May 2017 to allow more people to have their say. This important feedback will inform our decisions. The consultation is available online at www.translink.co.uk/bilingualbusscreens/ or leaflets are available in Foyle Street Bus Station. Sinn Féin Councillor Kevin Campbell welcomed the news. Councillor Campbell said: "It’s good news that the consultation has been extended to the 26^th May to allow as many people as possible to be give their opinion. Sinn Féin have been lobbying on this issue for a number of years in Derry and have held a number of meetings with Transport NI and have raised this with successive Transport Ministers on this issue. "I and party representatives Maeve McLaughlin and Colly Kelly met with the senior management of Translink in the Derry office at Foyle Street bus depot back in February 2015 to discuss our request that a bilingual destination signage pilot scheme be established for the Derry area. "Last year  I wrote to the Minister Chris Hazzard and I outlined our request for a pilot scheme. I believe this is doable and is achievable at very little cost. "Translink bus services operating in West Belfast have been featuring both English and Irish language signs on destinations screens since 2011. And there has been bilingual passenger information on bus shelter timetables and route information. "There are hundreds of children going to schools in the city learning through the medium of Irish and hundreds of people of all ages attending night classes and hundreds taking part in cultural musical and sporting activities. This was magnified tenfold when Derry hosted the Fleadh in 2013. "To have bus services using bilingual signage on a number of routes would I believe a very positive and progressive move for the city and would encourage people to take part in this consultation."