Iarnród Éireann has officially brought back its beloved catering service that was halted back in 2020 due to Covid-19.
It has been a long time coming, and passengers are rejoicing about the return of snacks and drinks on board.
While a widespread return is in the near future, some lucky travellers will catch a glimpse of it this week as Irish Rail tweeted: “With onboard catering resuming on the Cork to Dublin route later this month, please note there will be catering services available on a limited number of services on the Cork to Dublin route this week, operating for staff training purposes”.
In a statement published in February, the company confirmed that it would begin a phased return of onboard catering services in early April, starting with the Cork to Dublin route.
Passengers lived in hope that when restrictions were lifted - over a year ago - they’d be able to purchase drinks and snacks on board once again, however, Irish Rail says it was simply not possible up until this point.
"Ultimately, RailGourmet was not in a position to resume services due to costs and staffing issues and withdrew from the contract in May 2022," the national rail provider confirmed.
Since then, Iarnród Éireann has been working to find a market provider to collaborate with so they could restore the popular onboard service.
However, further delays were met because of "costs and staffing issues" which resulted in providers quoting prices to Iarnród Éireann far above the previous contract to restore full services.
Passengers travelling on the Cork to Dublin route will have the full service onboard, with other routes likely to follow at a later date.
A spokesperson confirmed: "Carriage Food Services, which is a sister company of CCSL (N.), who currently also provide catering services on board the Dublin to Belfast Enterprise service under a separate contract, will provide a trolley service on selected services on the Cork to Dublin route from early April, building to all Cork-Dublin services within weeks.
"With Cork to Dublin also serving the vast majority of customers travelling to/from Kerry (changing at Mallow) and Limerick (changing at Limerick Junction), 50 per cent of Intercity customers will have onboard catering available, including Dublin-Belfast Enterprise."
In tandem, Iarnród Éireann will:
- proceed with a full procurement process for catering services across the Intercity network
- progress a pilot for catering vending machines on selected trains. If successful and progressed further, vending machines would be intended to be complementary to onboard trolley services
- work to identify further opportunities to enhance station retail and catering facilities
An Iarnród Éireann spokesperson went on to say: "We have been as keen as our customers to see on-board catering resume, and are delighted to be in a position to do so with this interim provision.
"We also believe that the success of the interim service will ensure that some of the inflated costs being quoted for full catering provision across our Intercity network will be reduced through the full procurement process”.
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