Hopes of hourly Dublin-Belfast train service as Enterprise celebrates 75 years
A railway chief has said he hopes an hourly train between Belfast and Dublin can be in operation by as early as next spring, as the Enterprise service celebrates its 75th anniversary.
Some of the staff who worked on the service in its first years were among those who gathered at Lanyon Station in Belfast on Thursday to mark the date in 1947 when a seven-carriage steam train headed to Dublin, bringing about a new era in cross-border travel.
She was the first woman to work on the Enterprise.
“I was the first and the only girl that worked on it for two years until I had to go to Yorkshire to help my family,” she said.
“They were the very best days of my life. I loved every minute of it and I’d never have dreamed of taking a day off.
“It was very grand, we used to get quite a lot of Americans travelling on it. After the war they were able to travel a lot more.”
The 1947 inaugural train was operated by the Great Northern Railway company. It is now jointly operated by Translink NI Railways and Iarnrod Eireann.
In its first year in service, one train travelled in each direction. Seventy-five years later, the Enterprise service has eight daily departures in each direction.
“We’re really proud to be here celebrating the 75th anniversary, I think everyone has used the Enterprise over the years at some point, connecting Belfast and Dublin, and the stations in between,” he said.
“We want to bring an hourly service in as soon as possible, we’re already working with the SEUPB for funding, which they have committed a certain amount of funding for that, and also with the department for infrastructure and department for transport.
“We’re also working with Irish Rail, just using our existing fleet, to see if there is a way we can bring an hourly service in sooner, even at peak times, so maybe to do that by spring of next year.
“In the longer term, we’re working with the Irish government, with the Northern Ireland Executive, with the department of transport on the all-island rail review, and that will look at the feasibility of bringing high speed rail and extensions to the network right across the island of Ireland.”