Train driver Les Besagni, who has worked for nearly 30 years on the Dublin-Belfast service, remembers conversations with colleagues early last year about whether there would be a demand for hourly services.
This week, the Enterprise service celebrates the first anniversary of the hourly service with record numbers travelling, backed by a €25 million subsidy over 2½ years from Dublin and Stormont, but mostly from Dublin.
Today, Besagni laughs about his past doubts.
“We thought that there’d never be a demand, never. It has doubled my expectations,” he says.
RM Block
So far, passenger numbers are up by 40.4 per cent, with nearly 200,000 people each month travelling all or part of the route during the height of the summer season.
Fifteen trains run daily, with stops in Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry and Portadown, compared with just eight before the extra subsidy.
The service arrives in Belfast’s new Grand Central station, rather than its previous terminus at Lanyon Place.
“There are only four platforms in Lanyon, while there are eight at Grand Central, so that has been critical. We couldn’t have done this before,” says Billy Gilpin, Irish Rail’s director of train operations.
So far, the hourly service is proving popular – too popular at the busiest times, often – with daily commuters, though the numbers of tourists visiting Dublin or Belfast has jumped significantly. Often, visitors are making the journey for the first time.
Northern-bound passengers from Dublin frequently go on beyond Belfast, using train and bus connections offered by Grand Central, says Gilpin.
Currently, the service is given by three different types of trains – the De Detrichs, bought in 1997, which are generally understood as “the Enterprise trains”, but also by two Intercity trains and one Translink.
The quality varies between the three, with the De Detrichs able to offer first class and a dining car, while Translink has standard class only, with a trolley service for food and drinks during the journey of two hours and five minutes.
Success has brought its own issues. David Robinson, who travels regularly from Lisburn to Dublin, often buys first-class tickets to be sure of getting a seat, since standard class frequently books out on the busiest services.
However, Robinson appreciates that there are limitations on Irish Rail and Translink: “I am not sure that they can make the service any more frequent than they are doing, to be fair to them.”
However, new hybrid electric/diesel trains are on the way in four years time, with a purchase finally set to be made early next year.
Extremely pleased by the first year, Translink’s chief executive Chris Conway says: “Demand is way up and we can only see that growing.”
The ability to travel onwards from Connolly or Grand Central is being taken up, he says, noting that action was taken to ensure that arrival times in Belfast worked for connections on to Derry.
Teething problems caused delays for Dublin-bound commuter services from Dundalk and Drogheda in the opening weeks, but they have been overcome, says Gilpin. Likewise, complaints about barriers blocking road traffic at Lurgan have eased.
“You are trying to run fast trains in between slow trains. So, the only way you can keep the fast train fast is to separate out the slower trains,” Gilpin says, adding that timetabling changes have worked.
“The timetables from Portadown into Belfast and from Dundalk into Dublin are busy. We’re pleased with the journey times that we have got right now,” says Conway, who steps down next year as Translink chief executive after 10 years in the role.
The mix of trains brought into service reflected the speed with which the upgraded service was put in place once support from the Irish Government’s Shared Island Fund came: “That was a big opportunity,” he says.
The 2029 deadline for the new trains is simply part of the business.
“These are complex pieces of equipment. They’re largely bespoke. The suppliers have manufacturing windows. That’s the normal lead time for a train, unfortunately.”
Passengers value the hourly availability above everything else, he believes. “Most say, ‘Look, the fact that I can turn up, and even if I am a little bit late and I’ve missed that train, I know I don’t have a long wait for the next one.’
“That hourly frequency is the biggest benefit to our passengers. They do want to see the same fleet across the network and the same quality of service, but most understand that we got this opportunity, and that we have made it work.”
Before the hourly change, the majority of the Enterprise passengers came from Northern Ireland. “Now, though, it is pretty equal. There are more people coming from the South, including a lot of tourists,” Conway says.
Besagni agrees. “It’s fantastic. People have realised that they can get on in Connolly, sit in comfort and a bit of heat and get a hot meal, or whatever, and walk out on to Great Victoria Street in two hours and five minutes,” the train driver says.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Karl Allen was a cabin crew member for the Cityjet airline, before he joined Irish Rail as a customer service officer three years ago. “The increase over the last year has been incredible,” he says.
Not only is the service popular with passengers in Dublin and Belfast, it is increasingly so with those in Drogheda and Dundalk, and in Newry and Portadown because it offers express services into both cities “in two stops”.
Over the year, Enterprise staff have learned the faces of the new regulars, says Allen. “The nurses or doctors, sometimes in their uniforms. You get to know the regulars running for the 15:50 or the 16:50 to get back to Drogheda and Dundalk.”
