Half Translink train seats empty

The Enterprise operates between Belfast and Dublin

Trains in Northern Ireland have been operating with more than 250,000 empty seats every week.

The figures, which include off-peak periods, were taken from an average week over the last year.

They show that across Northern Ireland Translink train services, more seats were empty than occupied.

Translink's head of rail operations, Richard Knox, said it would have to look at how to attract additional passengers to its services.

"We do also have to take into consideration that we've seen over a 50% growth in our services since 2001, and 23% in the last two years," he added.

"This has been a fantastic period of success for the company and we will continue to work with various promotions to try and attempt to bring new passengers and also to give increasingly good value to our existing passengers."

On the Belfast to Londonderry service, 70% of available seats were taken up, while on the Bangor route, the figure was just 36%.

It was something similar on the cross-border Enterprise service to and from Dublin - at 35%.

The Portadown line fared a little better, with half of its 114,000 seats taken up.

On average across all lines, almost 257,000 train seats were empty every week.

Susie Brown, from the Consumer Council, said the challenge to Translink was "to ensure that are enough seats at peak times so that passengers choosing to go by rail get a seat and enjoy a comfortable and safe journey".