Full trolley service on trains not returning until 2024

HOPES of a full trolley service returning to all Iarnród Éireann trains this year have been derailed until early 2024.

Corporate communications manager with Irish Rail Barry Kenny has said catering on some services will have be delayed for longer than others.

He said: ‘It will be next month [April] for the Cork to Dublin route – that obviously benefits Limerick and Kerry lines as well. We’re doing a full tender then for the national network. I’ve got to be honest with you: you’re looking at early 2024 for that.’

Mr Kenny said budget restraints meant Irish Rail could do nothing more at the moment. ‘We’d have loved to have had it across all the routes, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible within the funding we had,’ he told Newstalk.

Passengers have been unable to get their mid-journey snack and beverage since 2020, when the service was halted because of the pandemic.

In the meantime, the company will be installing vending machines on trains.

Mr Kenny was speaking as the Government approved a major extension of the Dart to the southwest of Dublin city. Routes will be extended from the city centre to Hazelhatch and Celbridge.

Mr Kenny said other plans include an expansion of late-night services.

‘I think it is the next step in terms of our service expansion on the national networks – later evening services to the various regional cities,’ he said.

‘We obviously go to 9pm, which is the last train to Cork and Limerick, but on some of the others it is a bit earlier.

‘That’s where we would see the next wave of expansion,’ he added.