Belfast traffic: Translink warns of delays in city centre

Translink is warning of delays to bus services in and out of Belfast city centre due to traffic congestion on Friday evening.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the transport operator said some services in and out of the city centre are experiencing delays of approximately 35 minutes.

"Apologies for any delay and inconvenience," it said.

The transport provider also issued warnings to commuters on Thursday evening as a result of heavy traffic in and out of Belfast city centre.

In a statement earlier on Friday, the DfI said the road network around Belfast can "suffer from capacity issues at peak times".

It said that on Thursday afternoon, there were a number of collisions across the city, including an eight-vehicle crash on the M1 southbound between Broadway and Stockmans Lane.

This brought traffic to a standstill. The DfI said the crash resulted in long delays back long the M1 and Westlink and onto the M3 and M2.

"The recovery operation took quite some time and again traffic was brought to a standstill at peak rush hour," the DfI said.

During this recovery operation, another collision happened on the M3's Lagan Bridge east-bound. This caused delays for traffic approaching from the Westlink and M2.

"Both incidents occurred during the peak rush hour period and the time required to ensure that emergency services could attend, and the vehicles could be recovered also had a knock-on effect on some public transport services," the DfI said.

The Department said it understands that traffic delays are "frustrating" and urged commuters to consider using public transport.