Time to bring back the dining car on Irish trains

Manchán’s 'Europe by Train' currently showing on RTÉ 1 on Sunday evenings is well worth watching. Yesterday evening’s programme began with Manchán in Berlin, where he visited the former Tempelhof Airport and the iconic Kreuzberg. Before the Wall came down Kreuzberg was home to the world of alternative living. It was tucked away at the end of West Berlin. With the Wall gone it’s at the centre of Berlin and one of the hippest places in the world, where property doesn’t come cheap.

Watching Manchán rail from Berlin to Budapest one can’t but wonder why Irish Rail has empty dining cars rolling 10 times a day each way between Dublin and Cork.  Since Covid Irish Rail has not resumed serving meals on the service. Why? What must it be costing to pull or push an empty dining car approximately 5,000 kilometres every day?

Some years ago Irish Rail outsourced catering on their trains. Before that the company offered a unique meals service. The breakfast had a wonderful charm about it, similarly with lunch and ‘tea’. Alcohol was served in the dining car and also on the trolley service that worked its way through the train. Currently all alcohol is forbidden across the network.

Today all that is available is a trolley service on some routes. The Belfast Enterprise, which is operated by Northern Ireland Railways and Irish Rail, still has a dining car service.

Iarnród Éireann introduces a new timetable today.

Extra trains between Dublin  Galway, Wexford and Waterford. Within weeks there will be an hourly service between Belfast and Dublin. There are new services on Cork commuter routes. All trains between Dublin and Sligo will now stop at Broombridge to link up with Luas services.

Plans afoot to build a new platform at Mallow and Kishoge station on the Dublin Portlaoise service has now opened.

A new bridge with lift has come into operation at Banteer and a similar type bridge/lift is about to built at Rathmore. Both lines are on the Mallow Tralee service.

A new coach built for the carriage of bicycles has been added to a number of InterCity Railcars. The design seems somewhat unusual. Questionable how many bicycles the coaches can carry.