The Metro network has been hailed a success

Chief Executive Keith Moffatt said since its introduction, passenger numbers had increased by 6.3%.

"This represents an impressive increase of 24,000 people using the service each week which equates to around 450 additional full busloads," he said.

In April, it was revealed complaints had doubled to more than 540 since the new system was introduced.

At the company's annual public meeting on Thursday night, Mr Moffatt said the firm had "successfully begun the change process and are attracting more and more passengers every day".

Improvements

"However, it is only the first step and we still have a long way to go to ensure we deliver on the challenging targets as set out in the Regional Transportation Strategy and the Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan."

He said to maintain growth, improvements on the network and bus frequency were needed.

Mr Moffatt said that there was also "good progress" on the implementation of a new rail service.

"This new service aims to deliver improvements across all aspects including customer service and station upgrades," he said.