The beloved trolley service on board Irish Rail has been absent since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and it looks as if customers will be waiting even longer for its return.
Many sectors have been coping with staff shortages and the transport sector is still dealing with similar issues.
During Covid, when trains weren’t in operation, many employees resorted to finding work elsewhere, and now that things are up and running there is a lack of workers.
Irish Rail spokesperson Barry Kenny told Newstalk’s The Hard Shoulder: “It’s proving difficult. I think anybody who is in the catering and hospitality industry would know about the issue of staffing.
“This is a company where, obviously, the vast majority of its staff went elsewhere during a two-year period when there was no work, so I don’t have a date in terms of it being restored.
“We’re engaging with them but the unfortunate thing is we are looking at a potentially extended period of time where we won’t have on-board catering.
“We all love to grab the tea or the coffee and the snack on board and we know that convenience is something the customers want, so we will work to get it back as quickly as we can, but I don’t want to over promise here, it is going to be a bit of a gap.”
When the service stopped at the beginning of the pandemic, many passengers took to twitter to beg for its return.
One user wrote: “I feel there has been a huge void in my life without the fruit cake and tea or coffee on the trains.
“Particularly missing the curranty cake on @IrishRail services.”
A second passneger tweeted: “As it’s well over 2 years #irishrail have anything on the trains not even water.”
A third said: “This is a very serious locomotive-related question, @irishrail - when is the tea/coffee trolley coming back??
“My desire for the combination of train tea and a Dairy Milk is increasing rapidly every week. Please sort this. Thanks.”
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