Dijon has a stress free journey to work

These are the words of a Translink Life’s Better Ambassador Dijon Harte (30), a retail manager from Lisburn who travels to Belfast daily on a train.

Translink launched the ‘Life’s Better’ marketing campaign to highlight how using the bus and train can benefit your lifestyle.

“I am a big believer in the trains,” said Dijon who has a three-year-old daughter. “When I travelled by car into Belfast I would have filled my car with £30-£40 of petrol every week and in addition to that spend £2.50 on parking a day.

“Then I faced a 15 minute walk from my car. I would very often spend much of my time sitting in traffic congestion on the Westlink leaving me late for work. Now I use the express train from Lisburn to Belfast, which only takes ten minutes. No stress or hassle.

“There is also free Wifi on the train which helps too. All you have to do is look around you and see everyone on their Smart phones. Translink staff couldn’t be nicer. They are always happy to chat to everyone. Trains are hardly ever late. One bad day of weather or an accident would have caused huge delays on the roads. There is always a train for me every 20 minutes - quick and handy.”

Ciarán Rogan, Translink Marketing Executive explained, “This is a really exciting initiative. It follows a range of service enhancements which have already attracted many more new people to give our services a try - over 1.5 million more last year.

“Our customers regularly tell us the reasons they prefer using the bus and train – it gives them more time to relax free from the stress of driving in traffic, more time to catch up on work or social activities making use of free Wifi on board trains and coaches, reduced journey times, as well as money savings compared to paying for fuel, parking and car maintenance costs – these are just some of the more popular ones – there are many more!

“The novel Translink Life’s Better Ambassador initiative is an opportunity for our passengers to convey what they like about bus, coach and train travel and help inspire more people to get on board and start enjoying the benefits too. We would also encourage people to follow us at #translinklifesbetter and get involved with the online conversation. We will be posting regular updates and look forward to hearing the feedback.”

The campaign was recently launched by celebrity champions and passenger transport users David Meade, Pete Snodden, Katrina Doran and Nuala McKeever will took part in a series of exclusive ticketed special journeys throughout November and December.