From boiler suit to business suit

Technically minded and willing to take on new challenges, three years ago Robert progressed to his current position where he is responsible for the Magherafelt and Dungannon areas. Robert has been working for Translink for over forty years and with a strong passion for solving problems and a hands-on approach to continually learning new tasks, he has rotated around a range of departments within the company every five or six years.

Robert has a wealth of experience under his belt, from starting out with completion of the Certificate in Transport Engineering he worked as a mechanic travelling across Northern Ireland. After joining such a dynamic organisation Translink provided more opportunities and a stepping stone for Robert to personally develop and learn new skills. Robert achieved the NEBS (National Examination Board for Supervisory Management) Certificate and later successfully completed a Post Grad and Masters in Business Studies at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown.

Speaking about his career with Translink Robert said, “I thoroughly enjoy working in a management position; every day is very different and challenging which comes as no surprise as I am responsible for managing over 120 staff.”

“I feel very lucky to work with such a great bunch of people and my experience of working in different roles throughout the past forty years makes my job a lot easier. I have learned many invaluable and transferable skills from my background in engineering which I continue to put into practice every day - such as attention to detail along with my ability to analyse data, which is vital as I am also responsible for managing budgets.”

“We work as part of a close team to continually enhance our passenger services by reviewing schedules and bus times for local town services in response to consumer needs. We have improved our services to make it easier for people to go shopping or get to work with better access to more local facilities over the last year our local passenger numbers have increased by around 4% overall. In particular, we have seen significant growth in those who are over 60 taking advantage of their free travel with an increase of 13%. I would encourage even more people within the local community to look again at our services and the changes we have made to improve local connections and take advantage of great value bus fares especially with soaring fuel costs and the cost of running a car.”

“We have a range of great value ticket options available such as the new Ulsterbus day ticket for £2.40 which provides unlimited day travel on all Magherafelt Town Service routes. The new ticket can be purchased onboard from the driver and has been designed to make travel throughout Magherafelt as easy and convenient as possible.”

“In addition customers can still use their Smartlink card and if they top up with ten journeys the cost is just £0.90 per journey, which is of particular benefit for anyone travelling in and out of town and with journeys valid for a whole year it really is the smart way to travel.”

“Commuting to Belfast has become extremely expensive with fuel costs expected to rise again in the autumn. Our Goldline 212 express services offer a great value, comfortable and convenient option rather than using the car. Many of our current customers tell us they enjoy the extra time on board to relax, sleep, catch up on their social media, web browsing or reading. Using smartlink you can save around £95 per month compared to using the private car.”

“We are continuing to look at ways to enhance our services to make public transport the better choice for individuals, for our local community and for our environment” concluded Robert.