During late May, Belfast Harbour began testing its new ‘Harlander’ autonomous shuttle bus on roads around the city’s Titanic Quarter. When launched, the Harlander, which uses an electric vehicle provided by manufacturer eVersum, will be the first self-driving passenger service on the island of Ireland, carrying up to nine members of the public at one time, and with a safety operator on board. The vehicle will initially only be on the roads for testing and to enable the route to be mapped by Harlander’s systems in a project expected to take three weeks, with the service opening to the public at the end of May.
The Harlander project has been designed to provide last mile connectivity on a route where it wouldn’t be viable to operate a full-size bus, and to help understand how a modern transport option can complement the city’s existing public transport to key destinations within the Belfast Harbour Estate. It will run on a 15 to 20-minute loop, connecting Titanic Halt railway station with Queen’s Island on a route with six bus stops.
