A free ‘get home safe’ bus pilot programme introduced in Portadown is to be extended – but a similar initiative in Lurgan has reached its final destination.
Initially confirmed last October, the two-month night-time and early morning bus service was designed to see people “get home safely” over the festive season.
It was rolled out in Portadown, having already been introduced and operational in Lurgan.
The addition of the Portadown service was made possible as a result of an ‘underspend’ by the local Policing and Community Safety Partnership.
Now, given its success, it has been decided to continue to operate the service in Portadown but cease running altogether in Lurgan.
Confirmation came in a report to ABC Council’s October sitting of its health and wellbeing committee.
It explained: “Historically the service has been in place in Lurgan to improve the safety of patrons frequenting licensed premises within the vicinity of William Street, Lurgan, to reduce the number of assaults in the vicinity, to reduce the number of incidents of criminal damage and to reduce the number of incidents of anti-social behaviour and to reduce the fear of crime.
“Due to increasing night-time economy safety issues in the town that were raised by members, the PCSP agreed to pilot a trial service for the get home safe scheme in the Portadown area, through the utilisation of a small amount of underspend.
“The pilot in Portadown was trialled between December 2025 and March 2026 and was met with a positive response and uptake.”
Meanwhile, alongside this, a “detailed review” was undertaken of the service in Lurgan which confirmed a “continued significant reduction in passenger numbers”.
The contract that was in place for the get home safe bus delivery in Lurgan reached its maximum extension in June.
A decision was then taken to “defer procurement on any future service” until the PCSP met to discuss its preferred approach.
There has been no service in Lurgan, therefore, from the end of June, and an options paper prepared for the PCSP has seen a decision now taken that it will no longer run.
It was decided then that “the service in Lurgan should be discontinued and instead a service for the remainder of the year should be procured for Portadown”.
This would be “in line with the service which had been delivered through the pilot”.
PCSP officers are now liaising with the council’s procurement department to draw up a tender for the delivery of the get home safe bus service in Portadown, which will then be reviewed year on year.
