To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail any contingency plans that exist to manage disruption to public transport services during periods of extreme heat.

This issue is an operational matter for Translink. I have sought the requested information and have been advised as follows:

Translink teams proactively monitor periods of severe weather, via various forms such as meteorological reporting, network weather stations, railhead temperature gauges, air conditioning performance, along with staff and customer feedback. Translink enacts protocols and contingency arrangements, such as lowering operating speeds on the network to reduce heat impact on track infrastructure and associated operational service amendments.

Prior to the summer period the Rail and Bus fleets undergo a “summarisation” maintenance process to ready units for periods of hot weather.