So this is the first week of the new hourly Cork-Dublin-Cork train service, and I decided to try it out! This increased frequency has been enabled by the recent addition of some new train carriages, and has (apparently) increased the capacity by 80% on the route!!
The morning started rather frenetically, as I don't normally travel at this time, or into Cork city in this direction; the traffic was much heavier than I anticipated... I ended up parking the car and half-running, half jogging to the terminal. I quickly retrieved my pre-booked tickets from the machine at the entrance to the station and again rushed towards the platform for the train. As I sped past one rail worker, he said to me "there's no rush - you have plenty of time". It turned out that he was the train driver, so we were going nowhere without him :-)
I made it with 1 minute to spare and flopped down in the seat - finally able to relax!
The load on the train certainly seemed lighter than many of the previous journeys that I had taken, with about 40% of the seats taken. As you would expect from a new train, everything was clean, tidy, ..... and worked !! It was an extremely pleasant experience travelling in such comfort, with lots of space around me. I didn't make my way to the dining car, but bought a (slightly) overpriced coffee from the trolley that passed twice on its way up & dow the carriage.
We arrived into Heuston Station, Dublin a little later than scheduled due to the (usual) slow approach from a few miles out.
All-in-all a very acceptable trip, and one I would not hesitate to do again.
My journey back was similar - I actually was booked on the 5pm train, but finished work early, and took the 3pm, without any query. Actually, there are a couple of carriages for pre-booked seats (which I had on the 5pm), but all others are free seating, so no issue with changing train times....
So a highly recommended experience - it remains to be seen how the service will settle down e.g. if delays become an issue due to the tight schedule slots etc ....
