Irish Rail have confirmed that catering services will begin to resume in April after being suspended for three years.
Carriage Food Services 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. The company 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.
Irish Rail said the move will result in 50% of intercity customers, including the Dublin-Belfast Enterprise, having on-board catering services as the Cork to Dublin route also serves the vast majority of customers travelling to and from Kerry (changing at Mallow) and Limerick (changing at Limerick Junction).
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In tandem, Irish Rail said they will proceed with a full procurement process for catering services across the Intercity network and progress a pilot for catering vending machines on selected trains. If successful and progressed further, vending machines would be intended to be complementary to on board trolley services.
They said will also work to identify further opportunities to enhance station retail and catering facilities.
An Iarnrod Eireann spokesperson said: "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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