41 new ICR centre cars

RetroEncabulator

IE never had a full set of MK IIIs on the Cork line either. Most services were operated by them, but plenty of off peak stuff was operated by MK2 or Cravens and in later years by totally inappropriate commuter DMUs when there was a shortage of stock, which I know put people off using the train entirely as it was worse than a bus for a long distance.

There was also a regular problem with booking CityGold and ending up with a clapped out older train or even a commuter DMU. I know a number of businesses that simply stopped using the train when that happened - places that would have kept ticket books that could be filled in and all of that. Particularly as the motorway got better, it just stopped being a reasonable option for a lot of business traffic.

IE need to get things consistently right on those lines or they will not keep passengers on some of those services. The MK4 was a big improvement as you'd a standardised fleet for once and a proper business class at least for the seats anyway.

Things like the prolonged lack of catering after COVID was pretty ridiculous. I know they had issues finding a contractor, but it seemed remarkably dragged out.

Putting a coffee dock and a proper espresso machine on the MK4's would be a BIG BIG deal too and they seem to be incapable of doing that.

Surely the MK4 fleet could be fully in service with an Intercity DMU set as the spare?

I'm sure it might also be possible to do a ICR-MK4 set i.e. just get an ICR up to the same spec, including the same 1st class cabin spec. I can't really see why the ICRs couldn't do both MK4 and Enterprise supplementation if they were just slightly up-specced for 1 or 2 coaches.

I just think they're not a particularly fast service, so they need to be quite high spec.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121856714#Comment_121856714

The Commuter DMUs were used only on Sundays and they were extra services added to the timetable as crowdbusters.

They were highlighted as being “Arrow” trains in the public timetable so people would know that they weren’t full Intercity trains.

Not ideal, but it added much needed additional capacity.

The catering situation is an NTA problem - they aren’t prepared to pay more to IE to fund it, and frankly it shows a complete lack of understanding of one of the USPs of train travel by them.

RetroEncabulator

Things have improved since those days, but I remember serious inconsistency in the service. You regularly had issues with no trolleys for random reasons - often because the train was overloaded and they'd give up. Then you'd never be quite sure if you were getting a MK3 or some old bone shaker / museum piece would turn up.

I know the infrastructure was quite poor at the time - there was a total lack of investment for decades, other than the MK3s, but it really was showing very evidently towards the end of the 'orange train era' It was a very threadbare service really.

Whether it's IE or the NTA it's pretty bad. The whole service comes across as patchy. They need to massively put some umpphh into the value added side of the offering. If you could be sure of a decent quality of service, comfort and on-board catering, people would be more committed to using things like 1st class / city gold.

The key thing with quality is consistency and reliability.

They could definitely come up with a ICR-Intercity MK5 or something and just give some of those Hyundai units a slight up tweak and offer business class on Limerick, Galway, and so on and up their game a bit. The 1st class on those is a bit of a joke with just the same seats in leather.

There is no reason why those 22000 ICRs couldn't operate the Enterprise or Cork services in the same kind of category as the MK4 or the Enterprise fleet, it just needs minor up-furbs rather than refurbs.

They are good quality intercity trains with reasonable ride quality. I just think IE / NTA continue to think of them as a bit like super commuter DMUs, which isn't what they are.