IRISH ANGLE

Both Northern Ireland Railways and Irish Rail have revised their timetables for the Covid-19 crisis.

Services scaled back for virus crisis.

NORTHERN Ireland Infrastructure Minister Nicola Mallon announced on March 20 that she had approved Translink’s decision to introduce a revised timetable on and from March 23, for its bus and train services because of a significant drop in passenger numbers.

The Northern Ireland Railways timetable saw the cancellation of the weekdays 06.50, 16.05 and 20.05 Belfast Lanyon Place to Dublin Connolly, plus the return departures at 09.30, 13.20 and 20.50. The 11.05 ex-Lanyon Place and 14.00 return on Sundays have also been withdrawn.

Weekday internal services were reduced by around 20%, with service levels systemwide being similar to what is normally provided on Saturdays. The Sunday timetable remained unchanged. Catering services on the Cross-Border route were also withdrawn.

Meanwhile the Irish Government stated on March 12 that public transport would operate as normal during the crisis. However, rail services experienced a significant drop in passenger numbers and catering on all trains was withdrawn by March 23.

At the time of going to press,

IR said it would continue to operate most trains with the exception of a few ‘Enterprise’ services, and would continue to do so unless public policy or the advice of health professionals changed, or unless its workforce was impacted to an extent that made service reduction unavoidable.

■ In early March, the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) and the Downpatrick and County Down Railway (D&CDR) announced that all their activities would cease until further notice because of the Covid-19 crisis.