Enterprise (train service)

The Great Northern Railway (Ireland)(GNR(I)) introduced the service as the "Enterprise Express" on Monday 11 August 1947 in an attempt to compete with air and road transport which were challenging the railways. The inaugural service was hauled by GNR (I) Steam Locomotive No.83 "Eagle." This name would later appear on NIR Diesel Electric locomotive No. 101. The next development took place in 1950, when new AEC / Park Royal Vehicles Diesel Mechanical Railcars were introduced on the Dublin-based train. This train, however, had to be restricted to four coaches - one of the limitations of these particular units. They did have the distinction, however, of being the first successful mainline diesel railcars in the British Isles. In October 1953 the governments of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland nationalised the GNR as the Great Northern Railway Board (GNRB). The GNRB ordered new diesel-mechanical railcars of a more powerful design, which by using intermediate power cars with half-cabs and gangway ends, were capable of operating in sets of up to 8 coaches. Referred to as B.U.T. railcars, due to their design by British United Traction, they were introduced on the Belfast-based train in 1957 and the Dublin-based train in 1958, enabling timings to be reduced to 2 hours 10 minutes, and ending steam traction on Enterprise. with an average speed of respectively. The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland runs a steam Enterprise in the summer months to exchange its Dublin-based engine with its Whitehead-based engine. Autumn 2009 disruption On Friday 21 August 2009 of the Broadmeadow estuary viaduct, north of Malahide, collapsed, causing serious disruptions to Enterprise services. During the disruption the Enterprise operated between Belfast Central and Drogheda, with buses connecting Drogheda with Dublin Connolly. The line reopened on Monday 16 November with full services resumed. Mid-life refurbishment The Enterprise underwent a face-lift during between November 2007 and early 2009, with the carriages being resprayed in silver with green livery, some of which could be seen at Translink's York Road Maintenance Depot. In 2014, a mid-life refurbishment programme was announced for the Enterprise service. Rotating refurbishment involved substituting non-Enterprise trainsets on an individual basis which began in November 2014, with a return to service of the first revamped coaches in November 2015. Refurbishment provided new mechanical running gear, in coach electronics and modernised interiors. The first refurbished set, consisting of DVT 9002 and Locomotive 206, operated a trial service from York Road Depot in Belfast to Dublin Connolly and back, on Thursday 15 October 2015. Recent developments Press reports from 2007 have stated that NIR & IÉ plan to introduce a new hourly service. This was reiterated in a statement by Conor Murphy, the then Northern Ireland Minister for Regional Development, who stated that the two companies had made a presentation to the North/South Ministerial Council in October 2007 putting forward the case for improvements in the frequency and speed of the service. Any improvements to the service would require significant investment in track and signalling, as well as new rolling stock. In April 2008, the then Minister for Regional Development stated that the major improvements to the infrastructure and rolling stock required by Enterprise would be in the region of £500 million. However, the introduction of an hourly timetable remains an ambition for NIR and IÉ. Enterprise would require a minimum of seven trains to operate an hourly service – until 2013, IÉ had a significant number of stored Mark 3 rolling stock available, of which five sets were push-pull capable. However, all of IÉ's Mark 3 carriages were scrapped during 2013 and 2014. NIR also withdrew its "Gatwick" set in June 2009 and it has been preserved by the RPSI. The introduction of the 22000 Class could potentially be used to enhance the frequency of the Enterprise which has led to a surplus of locomotives that could be utilised. The major issue remains the capacity at , which is stretched. In July 2024, as part of a set of major improvements to its national timetable, Iarnród Éireann announced that Enterprise would transition to an hourly frequency following the opening of Belfast Grand Central. The expanded service operates from Monday–Saturday, and allows arrivals in both Belfast and Dublin before 9.00am. In order to meet the new service frequency from its launch, the existing Enterprise fleet is being supplemented by a pair of 22000 Class units, and one double Class 3000 unit from NI Railways, each of which are six cars long. This is until the planned entry into service of the new fleet from 2029. The service began on 29 October 2024. ==Rolling stock==

Current fleet Each push-pull trainset consists of seven coaches and a 201 Class locomotive. The 28 carriages were delivered as four sets of seven but entered service as three sets of eight, with two locomotives from each operator. The coaches were manufactured by De Dietrich Ferroviaire, while the locomotives are from GM-EMD; ownership of the rolling stock is shared between both operators, with carriage maintenance by NIR and locomotives maintained by IÉ. The coaching stock is based on the Class 373 Eurostar stock, with the interiors identical to the pre-overhaul Eurostar interior. The Eurostar stock is articulated and permanently coupled, while the Enterprise is ordinary coaching stock. 's rolling stock The service had suffered from a lack of reliability of the locomotives, which provide head end power to the train. Unlike IÉ's Dublin-Cork services, which operate with the locomotive operating with a generator control car that provides power for lighting and heating the train, the Enterprise fleet was only equipped with an ordinary control car, which had no power generating capability. This meant that the locomotive had to provide all the power for the train, both motive and generating. Extended operation in this mode caused damage, so four further locomotives were allocated to Enterprise from the IÉ fleet. However, this still required locomotives to be used in HEP mode, so in May 2009 the Minister for Regional Development in Northern Ireland requested an estimate for the provision of generator functions for the existing rolling stock so that head-end power mode would no longer be needed. In order to avoid further problems, a modified Mark 3 Generator van, formerly 7604, was introduced on Monday 10 September 2012. Three further such generator vans have since entered service. If an Enterprise set is unavailable, either a NIR or an IÉ set can be used. Both NIR and IÉ have equipped six each of their newest DMUs (3000 and 29000) and ten 22000 Class DMUs to each other's specifications so they may be used in the event of a breakdown. Future fleet Both IÉ and NIR have an ambition to introduce hourly services, but it would be necessary to procure new, faster rolling stock to achieve the required improvements in frequency and speed. In 2005, they investigated procuring new rolling stock when seven capable Class 222 DEMUs built for the British network became available as one of the possible options, which also included the procurement of additional 22000 Class DMUs as part of IÉ's order. New rolling stock would most likely be a multiple unit rather than locomotive-hauled, similar to IÉ's plans for Dublin-Cork services. In 2023, IÉ and NIR published a tender valued at €650 million for a fleet of 8 new battery-equipped electro-diesel multiple units, capable of making the journey between Dublin and Belfast in 2 hours or less. They are to be designed to allow for the removal of their diesel engines and conversion to dual-voltage operation in the future. It is hoped the entire fleet will be in service by 2029. In 2024, an announcement was made that funding totalling €165m had been secured from the PEACE PLUS programme. On 18 September 2025, the contract to construct the new sets was awarded to Stadler Rail. A court challenge from unsuccessful tenderer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles put the contract on hold and threatened the loss of EU funding, leading the court to lift the injunction and allow the contract to continue on 26 November. ==Criticism==

In November 2007 the cross-border IBEC-CBI Joint Business Council, in a submission to the North/South Ministerial Council, stated that Enterprise was falling behind compared to the improvements of other international rail providers, with delays "often up to an hour" and serious reliability problems and an uncompetitive journey time against making the journey by road. With the faster road journey to Dublin and the Enterprise's unreliability and infrequency, it has faced a loss of revenue as passengers switch to much cheaper and faster alternatives. ==Gallery==

Image:Dublin_belfast_enterprise.jpg| The interior of a First Plus carriage Image:Enterprise Connolly.jpg|Enterprise Control Car 9002 at Dublin Connolly in 2007 Image:Portadown railway station in 1972.jpg|A 001 Class locomotive powers an Enterprise service through Portadown in 1972. Image:101 NIR enterprise service - dublin - 15-09-1980.jpg|A 101 Class locomotive with an Enterprise service arriving at Dublin Connolly in 1980 File:Railway at Adelaide (2) - geograph.org.uk - 626601.jpg|A 111 Class hauling a rake of Mark 2 carriages at Adelaide in 1988 File:Lambeg railway station in 2005.jpg|A 29000 Class DMU works an Enterprise service through Lambeg in 2005. File:Railtour at Dublin - geograph.org.uk - 1750507.jpg|The Enterprise at Dublin Connolly next to a Railtour to Sligo in 2010 File:Enterprise generator van Belfast.jpg|Enterprise Generator Van at Belfast Central in 2016 ==References==