Irish Railway News ‘Enterprise Watch’

[IrishTrainScenes]

On 27/6/2025 at 6:37 PM, jhb171achill said:

Blue 216 has been kickin' around at Connolly shed several days this week. Dunno what's in Belfast. 

233 is in Belfast 

[IrishTrainScenes]

1900 was 22301

[jhb171achill]

Saw an NIR 3-car railcar heading north earlier this evening. I'm thinking my Thursday trip will be by car.

[IrishTrainScenes]

10 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Saw an NIR 3-car railcar heading north earlier this evening. I'm thinking my Thursday trip will be by car.

All DD sets in service this morning 

[IrishTrainScenes]

Ah Jaysus - spoke too soon

[GSR 800]

3003+3002 on 14.50 ex Connolly 

[IrishTrainScenes]

2 hours ago, GSR 800 said:

3003+3002 on 14.50 ex Connolly 

That's a booked roster.

It turns out one set (9004) has been taken out of service as it needs its bogies replaced.

No idea why 9002 is out of service so 9003 the only one in service.

 

[IrishTrainScenes]

@jhb171achillyour best hope of a DD is probably the 0650 or 1250

[jhb171achill]

49 minutes ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

@jhb171achillyour best hope of a DD is probably the 0650 or 1250

Aaarrghgh

 

I'm probably on the 10:50..............

[IrishTrainScenes]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

Aaarrghgh

 

I'm probably on the 10:50..............

The DD set MIGHT be back tomorrow but I wouldn't get my hopes up. 

[jhb171achill]

1 minute ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

The DD set MIGHT be back tomorrow but I wouldn't get my hopes up. 

What about the 09:50?

 

[NIRCLASS80]

9004 is in service tomorrow. 9002 is on test tomorrow. 

[Darrman]

Sounds like I dodged a bullet yesterday: the 10am from Belfast was a DD and there was no trouble beyond an obligatory stuck-behind-a-Dart for the last few miles. I had actually booked the 2pm from Dublin to Cork accounting for Enterprise unreliability but I'd have made the 1pm. 

I must say, the breakfast waffles are very very sweet!

[IrishTrainScenes]

7 hours ago, NIRCLASS80 said:

9004 is in service tomorrow. 9002 is on test tomorrow. 

Definitely?

[jhb171achill]

10:50 is an oul railcar. NIR thing, but at least it’s not a 29.

[Mol_PMB]

17 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

10:50 is an oul railcar. NIR thing, but at least it’s not a 29.

"oul railcar. NIR thing"... 

Sometimes I wonder whether I was born about 100 years too late.

[airfixfan]

9002 seen on test at Whiteabbey this morning

[jhb171achill]

4pm leaving from Maysfields Cattle Sidings Lanyon Central. Gawwd knows what it will be. A 2-car 26 diverted from Little Island - Carrigaloe?

[Mol_PMB]

1 minute ago, jhb171achill said:

4pm leaving from Maysfields Cattle Sidings Lanyon Central. Gawwd knows what it will be. A 2-car 26 diverted from Little Island - Carrigaloe?

It could be coming through from Whitehead - a blue 4-4-0 with a rake of green Mk2 coaches?

[IrishTrainScenes]

19 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

4pm leaving from Maysfields Cattle Sidings Lanyon Central. Gawwd knows what it will be. A 2-car 26 diverted from Little Island - Carrigaloe?

More likely 9002+231 as was on test 

[GSR 800]

4 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

10:50 is an oul railcar. NIR thing, but at least it’s not a 29.

Glory to the 29s!

[airfixfan]

Was 231 this morning but went to Antrim

[IrishTrainScenes]

The following Enterprise services will not operate today, 03/07/2025:

 

16:00 Belfast Grand Central to Dublin Connolly 
18:50 Dublin Connolly to Belfast Grand Central 

 

52 minutes ago, airfixfan said:

Was 231 this morning but went to Antrim

It went to Antrim???

[jhb171achill]

Well, there’s wasn’t a 4pm.

At 15:25, an announcement at the soviet cigarette factory told us all to go to Lanyon on a local, as the 16:00 was going from there. Over the next 50 minutes, numerous empty NIR sets went through without stopping, all towards the new terminus; and one DD (228) went empty towards York Road. No explanations, and staff on the ground knew nothing. At 16:50 we were told to hurry round (back) to Grand Soviet to get the 17:00, which is an ICR with no tea trolley, or, unusually for an ICR, no internet.

NEXT time, car. 

Edited yesterday at 17:53 by jhb171achill

[Mol_PMB]

2 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Well, there’s wasn’t a 4pm.

At 15:25, an announcement at the soviet cigarette factory told us all to go to Lanyon on a local, as the 16:00 was going from there. Over the next 50 minutes, numerous empty NIR sets went through without stopping, all towards the new terminus; and one DD (228) went empty towards York Road. No explanations, and staff on the ground knew nothing. At 16:50 we were told to hurry round to Grand Soviet to get the 17:00, which is an ICR with no tea trolley.

NEXT time, car. 

A classic example of how to drive away custom. Ideally everything would run smoothly, although most people accept that things go wrong from time to time. But misleading or absent information during times of service disruption is extremely frustrating.

Must do better!

[jhb171achill]

12 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

A classic example of how to drive away custom. Ideally everything would run smoothly, although most people accept that things go wrong from time to time. But misleading or absent information during times of service disruption is extremely frustrating.

Must do better!

There was even more to it today, but I didn’t want to labour the point!

Sooner both governments cough up for a complete new fleet, the better!

[IrishTrainScenes]

18 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

There was even more to it today, but I didn’t want to labour the point!

Sooner both governments cough up for a complete new fleet, the better!

6 x CAF was 1050 due to set being trialled to Templepatrick 

[airfixfan]

2 hours ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

The following Enterprise services will not operate today, 03/07/2025:

 

16:00 Belfast Grand Central to Dublin Connolly 
18:50 Dublin Connolly to Belfast Grand Central 

 

It went to Antrim???

Was meant to but used Templepatrick loop instead

[geraghtyg]

On 2/7/2025 at 12:51 PM, IrishTrainScenes said:

Ah Jaysus - spoke too soon

A coach train with "First class reduced". Is this a 3 car 22000 with First class?

[GSR 800]

11 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

There was even more to it today, but I didn’t want to labour the point!

Sooner both governments cough up for a complete new fleet, the better!

Tbh don't really understand the idea of an hourly Enterprise before gettin new sets in. Purely from a promo pov, you're offering the customer a very varied experience on a DD/ICR/CAF. The DDs and locos ain't getting any younger. Doubt we'll see them until 2030 though.

Perhaps a better alternative would be make the Enterprise non stop to say, Drogheda or Dundalk, and from there have a connecting ICR or CAF making the more regular stops. The morning Enteprise is used as a de facto commuter up and down the Belfast main line.

Nothing can be done about the DART problem until there's extra tracks to avoid them altogether.

[airfixfan]

Stormont only has money for new roads not trains. Over 20 years later plans to restore the railway to Armagh have just reached another feasibility study stage 

[IrishTrainScenes]

1 hour ago, airfixfan said:

Stormont only has money for new roads not trains. Over 20 years later plans to restore the railway to Armagh have just reached another feasibility study stage 

Ffs. Stormont need to get their act together.

[jhb171achill]

3 hours ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

Ffs. Stormont need to get their act together.

To be fair to them, it's Westminster that pays their salary. The real deal is how Stormont can get the Other Island to cough up. And, it has to be said, Stormont does have people (on both sides who are aware of that and (rightly) do not lose an opportunity to try to extract pounds sterling from those quarters for a number of things (the health service there probably being the most pressing, but that's another story).

[Branchline121]

With the UK having invented trains you'd really think they'd be better at them. With so many gaps in their network despite the population density you would imagine there would be more projects in the last few years (all I can think of recently is the Borders Railway, EWR and HS2). Not to mention the age of their stock (many railcars around the country are '80s-era) and general lack of electrification. It's no surprise Westminster isn't funding projects in the North.

[jhb171achill]

Several points; after decades of conservative rule over thyere, gopvernment investments in any public infrastructure projects is not exactly littered with largesse; and in order to try to counteract conservative votes, like in many other countries, the parties who represented the left are veeriong more and more towards insipid silence, mediocrity, and hand-wringing; witness the Dems in the USA too, who are now considerably mo9re right-leaning than pre-Reagan republicans!

But to stick to the railway theme, the British still are "good" at railways, just perhaps not so much in some areas, though arguably a great deal better in others. None of the preceding posts are really about the railways themselves, or to back to topic, the Enterprise. Ever since railways had to be nationalised some 75 years ago, as a result of not being able to pay their way as businesses, they have been entirely dependent on state funding. Investment in railways, or lack of it, is a matter for a government - be it a British, Irish, EU or Timbuktooean one; rather than a lack of any will or skill within the railway itself.