{"id":16751,"date":"2025-07-23T00:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/16751\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T00:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:50:12","slug":"self-driving-shuttle-bus-launched-in-belfast-harbour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/16751\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-driving shuttle bus launched in Belfast Harbour"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Harlander shuttle has entered into general service today, with the eight-seater shuttle bus connecting the train station and the Catalyst Campus, just off Queens Road.<\/p>\n

There is no driver on board the bus, although there is a “safety operator\u201d sitting behind a wheel that turns itself.<\/p>\n

Belfast Harbour say the goal of the project is to offer \u201clast mile connectivity\u201d between the train station and the rest of the harbour estate, connecting \u201ctransport networks to businesses, tourist attractions and education and leisure facilities\u201d.<\/p>\n

During a pilot period between now and September, the bus will be entirely free to use for members of the public.<\/p>\n

\"Belfast<\/p>\n

Belfast Harbour<\/p>\n

The Harlander was developed by the Harbour along with several other companies, including eVersum, Oxa, Angoka, BT and Horiba Mira.<\/p>\n

A special right-hand drive version of an electric bus was created specifically for the Harlander service by the Austrian firm Hobira Mira.<\/p>\n

Oxa are behind the self-driving technology, while safety testing was carried out by Hobira Mira, a Coventry-based company.<\/p>\n

In May, Belfast Harbour said the vehicle was \u201ctested to death\u201d by Hobira Mira in order to ensure its safety.<\/p>\n

Mike Dawson, people and digital transformation director at Belfast Harbour, said: \u201cFollowing eight weeks of testing, we are delighted to launch the Harlander to the public to offer last mile connectivity on the Harbour Estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a groundbreaking project for Northern Ireland and is a step towards fully driverless transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelfast Harbour has a strong track record of supporting innovation and this project supports our Smart Port ambitions, utilising cutting-edge technology to support our tenants and the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to see the public reaction and utilisation of the service.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, Mr Dawson described the shuttle as an attempt to \u201cincentivise\u201d people to use public transport by more seamlessly connecting the train and Catalyst.<\/p>\n

He described the current loop of four stops as a \u201cmodel and a blueprint\u201d that will be used to find what is \u201cviable for other services\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019d like to do is have this run, learn from it, particularly the passenger experience and customer experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does that look like? What does that feel like? What needs to be tweaked, improved? How do you make sure there are no barriers to entry for people to be able to get on and access it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/p>\n

Mike Dawson, the people and digital transformation director at Belfast Harbour<\/p>\n

The Harbour plan for the Harlander to be a first step towards an increasing amount of autonomous vehicles being used in Northern Ireland\u2019s transport network.<\/p>\n

Mr Dawson said that he would \u201clike to see\u201d self-driving vehicles across the city: \u201cWe would like to see more of these, where you can create connectivity on the estate itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see this as a much bigger play regionally, not just for Northern Ireland, but also for GB, where you can get connectivity to those main routes.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine you had estates in the city where you had these types of routes feeding the Glider route.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t replace bus drivers, it augments what we have in place today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Harlander shuttle has entered into general service today, with the eight-seater shuttle bus connecting the train station…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1334,84,59,10985,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-16751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-james-mcnaney","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}