(02 Feb 2025, 10:44 am)Andreos1 wrote There's so much more to that route, other than bus lanes. 
There's the political aspect i.e East Belfast to West and the places it connects to on the way for a start. 

Tell you what though, if I spent £100m, I'd want more than a 7% modal switch.

Aye agreed there's more to it but it's all bus priority mostly bar a few bus stops really. I'd argue the places the 21, 39/40, 56, 43/44/45 etc serve as substantial as those services. They're all got at least one destination point mid route and are all mostly urban areas through the full route heck even merge the 21 and 43/44/45 and create decent cross city links.

£100m for 7-9% modal shift isn't too bad imo. Obviously I don't know the numbers so have be cautious with %'s but a 70% growth in patronage isn't exactly bad. It would easily pay for the BSIP funding being pumped in the 21...

Not to mention if you reduced the routes by 5 minutes each board you'd knock a few vehicles off the PVR which could be used to run the extra service which you want elsewhere creating those missing links - effectively for free, instead of having buses parked up doing nothing in traffic jams.