A shame Irish Rail has no catering service

This week’s INM/Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Covid has proved a disaster. It has killed millions of people worldwide but it has also done terrible damage to so many of the things we have taken for granted.

Before Covid Irish Rail offered a dining service on its InterCity trains along with a trolley facility, which worked its way through the train and allowed people to purchase light snacks and drinks. Alcohol was part of the menu.

With Covid restrictions lifted Irish Rail has not reintroduced its outsourced dining car and trolley services on its trains. And it has prohibited alcohol on all its services. 

I’ve been a regular traveller on the Dublin Cork/Tralee train for well over 30 years and in that time I have seldom if ever experienced any anti-social behaviour. During one three-year period I was travelling between Tralee and Dublin on a weekly basis. It meant using a super early morning train out of Tralee on Tuesdays and then returning to Kerry on a late evening train from Heuston. I don’t think I ever once had an uncomfortable experience.

Irish Rail has said it is going to take some time before its onboard catering service is resumed. The company is currently in search of a new service provider.

Does it really take that long to find someone who is willing and able to sell food and drink on trains? After all it is a captive audience.

I remember the time when Irish Rail provided its own catering service on its InterCity trains.

I have such fond memories travelling on the  then 09.00 direct service from Heuston to Tralee with my late father. Somewhere south of Portlaoise we would walk to the dining car and treat ourselves to that famous full Irish breakfast. It was delicious and over the years we both got to know the Irish Rail staff in the dining car. It was as good as anything on the Orient Express, at least so it seemed to me back in the day.

Once Irish Rail outsourced its catering service I for one felt that the mystique, the charm of dining on a train disappeared.

Might I suggest to Irish Rail instead of searching about for a new company to provide catering on its trains it could do a lot worse than return to what it once did so well. And by the way, I often wonder is out-sourcing really as wonderful as it’s made out to be.

The recent disclosures of Uber’s shenanigans in attempting to gain access to the Irish taxi market should be a warning to all of us. Congratulations are in order to the Uber whistleblower, who is an Irishman.

 

It’s the same old story with zero hour contracts, whereby the employer is not obliged to guarantee any working hours to the employee.

I have often spoken with contract workers to discover to my horror how inferior their terms of employment are compared with permanent staff.

It seems to be a relentless race to the bottom. It always means the rich get richer on the backs of the less well off. Also, I’d much prefer to live in a society, and with whistleblowers too, than in an economy.