Riding the Belfast to Dublin Enterprise Train 

VooDooTrois “seriously huge, look.”

Or material coffee, that aint the best

@@lesliedodds4011 I used to enjoy rail travel in Britain when the seats were aligned with the windows, even if the trains only reached 125mph, that is until most of the comfortable seats were replaced with cramped airline style. The HS2 line is an expensive vanity project (like Tony Blair's Millenium Dome and the London Olympics) and goes to Curzon Street in Birmingham-very useful!! As for HS3, that is at the moment, just electioneering, but should it ever get built, I suspect that it will be the Irish who will get the contracts, as far from being thick, they can certainly build a railway

@@MervynPartin HS2 line as far as i can see will go ahead because theve taking the existing line as far as it can go AND THEY WANT OVER 200 MPH trains for quicker journeys the old tunnels like kilsby well built for its time is hard to look after now;; these tunnels are always flooding and being drained like seven oaks and cost millions to keep. New tunnels they can boar straight through and using concrete are dryer and can have lights in them as we see with channel tunnel and europe ;They are working on HS2 as we speak HS3 is just moving it along to other cities and probably up into scotland but london to birmingham will be the test for the rest theyll probably use the old system for freight what i ment being Irish myself we will just be giving left overs to keep us happy indeed .

Leslie Dodds You do realize that Ireland has its own high speed lines in progress it’s just not completely publicly broadcast around the country at the moment our rail lines are being upgraded in the coming years and even so they are completely getting a new rolling stock for the dart and everything.

@@Mgaffo222 Do you think you will see a HS line between belfast and Dublin maybe take it on to cork .

I hear they are looking into it as a plan for the future I would really hope so as it would be a huge benefit to the country

I saw that too! Ha Ha

The next stop is horse a time

Lisburn (suburb of Belfast) NOT Lisbon (the Portuguese capital). Do not confuse the two.

tim bowerman That's the joke!

@@TIMBOWERMAN They are referring to an error in the subtitles.

The Featherston Flyer (ie the Wairarapa Line ) uses 5 sets of 5-9 x late Mk2 carriages on its 100km length ..very comfortable with power points for every seat...excellent lighting...new blue pattern moquette ..tables!!...but still no coffee machine...

That made me smile when I was in Belfast too!

She used to infest Northern which caused some confusion in the Geordietacht. "This train is for NewCARSTLE, calling et PrudHOE and Mitrocenter" One of the (so far) few good thigs about the Arriva take over was her immediate dismissal.The now voices are mostly Tykes, but at least they try to get the pronunciation right.

I,m sure Japanese buses all have the same lovely lady doing it.

Same Japanese lady..lest it seem ambiguous

Ice Karma You are right, the guy delivering the breakfast seemed to just bang it down on table and walk off, nothing friendly about it!!

Needs a "fecking" in there for the full effect.

Delivered with grace and finesse

Interesting. So Iarnród Éireann presumably have all stations in Ireland voiced as Gaeilge as well, Port a' Dúnáin, Lios na gCearrbhach etc, but NIR just uses their own monolingual ones? I was sad there was no Gaeilge on this service, considering its all around the carriages themselves (like a standard Iarnród Éireann set)

@@ailinos wonder is it because unionist customers might take offence?

@@manusmacgearailt667 But if they walked through the carriage they'd see signs with Irish on them. Water has uisce above it, soap has gallúnach etc etc

@@ailinos The Enterprise feels more NIR than IÉ to me, and the monolingual announcements are part of that.

@@qwertyTRiG Yeah, for sure. I just find it so strange that they've signs onboard as Gaeilge, but no announcements

There isn’t a flight between Dublin and Belfast.

West Mids Trainspotting there is

Not a direct one - you can fly but you’d have to go via Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool or London and it would take loads more time than taking the train.

@@WMTrainspotting I just Googled "Belfast Dublin Flight" and the first result was Loganair 1 day 3 hours. That's an average speed of about 4mph. I assume they use a hot air balloon. Actually it's via Carlisle Lake District Airport which I have to admit I've never heard of.

If you're paying at least 50% extra for first class and yet they charge you for meals is it really worth paying more just to have a comfy seat and more space?

I'm going to Toronto later this year and was thinking of going on the Maple Leaf. Apparently it stops for an hour at the border!

Currently, there are no border control formalities on passing between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (or vice versa), as both countries are in a Common Travel Area. What happens in the future depends primarily on the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

David Wood Not so, the Common Travel Area agreement is nothing to do with the EU.

@@barrygower6733 As you rightly point out, the CTA is a bilateral agreement between the Irish and British governments. However, if the UK leaves the EU and declines to remain in the EU single market, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland becomes an external border of the EU for the first time (as both the UK and Ireland joined the then EEC on the same day, 1 January 1973) which could make the current CTA arrangements might become untenable. Rather than attempting to pull apart these complexities, I answered Avery's question in a way that was accurate today as well as noting the possibility of future change. My sincere hope is that any future changes will not imperil the CTA or the Good Friday Agreement; I can only hope that the value of free movement across that border and the relative peace in the island of Ireland are uppermost in the minds of those taking decisions.

There are no border stops / delays.

Much more comfortable than road though - I'll happily spend an extra 30 minutes on that train journey over the M1

It's only about 100 miles so £16 is reasonable one-way but I don't think it's incredibly cheap. Did they say you can only buy tickets 3 days in advance? If so that sounds strange. I think in Britain you can buy tickets 6 weeks in advance.

Not really. I recently took 10 hour epic journey from Belgrade to Podgorica for 17 euros. UK trains way too expensive.

@@edwilson5416 Yes i know. this is probably around about the correct price for this sort of journey in other places but compared to England it is still insane. A Bath - London child ticket is £30

It’s only “insane” if you are used to UK train prices. In other parts of Europe it would be normal or maybe a bit expensive even with comfy seats. But then again there is complimentary tea & coffee, so, that’s worth at least an extra fiver.

@@caw25sha Rather late on this reply, but saying as no-one actually replied to your question I figured I would. You can buy several weeks in advance, not sure how many exactly, but as long as you book more than 3 days in advance you can book online for a reduced fee. After that, you can't get the cheap fare. (Oh and none of our trains or buses in NI actually take credit/debit cards on board to pay for tickets - its cash, preferable exact change, or a ticket bought at the booth in the station where you can pay by card) @andrew74797 - the complimentary tea & coffee is only for the "Enterprise Plus" seats which is basically first class. That being said, the rest of the seats are still pretty decent with about 80% of them being around a table of 4 and a tea/coffee is £1.75. I live in Newry and used to get the Enterprise into Belfast for starting work at 10am - which was amazing, cuz it is much better than the earlier trains which are packed and they are the "smaller" commuter trains unless you get the like 6am train! Our monthly travel pass was around £210, which technically offered unlimited travel for the month through-out the entire of NI (a monthly Zone 4 card), so it really wasn't too expensive either. (Parking alone in Belfast is over £120+ a month, plus fuel, etc and traffic is a nightmare). The main drawback of the Enterprise is the crappy timetable - they only run around every 2 hours. Which if you think about how regularly trains run between large cities in the UK, every 2+ hours is insanely poor. Newry train station got a "million-pound upgrade" a few years ago and everyone was excited thinking it meant we would get better service - nope, we have a huge train station building with two vending machines, a one-person ticket office (which is usually closed as the same person checks ticket to let you onto the platform). It's a bit of a joke, because the only trains we get bar the super early ones are the Enterprise, we get no "slow trains" - over 98% of them terminate at Portadown.

@Michael John Dennis That's because only eastern Europeans would put up with the pathetic wages that Irish Ferries pay their crew - looks like Stena Line treats their crew well and that must be why the Irish workers flock to them?

Do you know if I can board at Titanic Quarter to go to Dublin with a web purchased ticket? Or should we just take a taxi?

You don't need to walk - they run trains! Seriously though, I assume you mean you work for the railway as a track inspector?

@@caw25sha foot patrols during the troubles

As far as I'm aware you don't, there are no border checkpoints on the roads crossing between the UK and Ireland, the road edge line just changes colour and there's a sign noting that the speed limit signs change units.

They are both in the common travel area.

Not at all. No ID is necessary. Oileán amháin, Éire amháin!!

However, any tourists, students etc - eg Chinese, Indians etc - who have only a UK or Irish visa and need a visa to enter the other country probably shouldn't risk it without checking they have the correct documentation, even if in practice they might get away with it. I've heard of some foreign travellers inadvertently falling afoul of that mostly invisible border due to visa issues. EU citizens, Americans, Australians etc are presumably fine since they don't need a visa to enter either the UK or Republic of Ireland as short term tourists.

They have ample storage space

@@matthewpepper1548 thank you for the response. We actually already used it in 2019. We stowed some under the seats others above on a rack and the largest under a table if I remember correctly

It's still running but southbound only for some baffling reason. WHY LNER?

@@caw25sha yeah thought it was does seem daft that!

Highland Chieftain (to/from Inverness) and Northern Lights (to/from Aberdeen) are both longer. The former is the longest. As previously mentioned, I wonder why is Flying Scotsman is one way (and the wrong way)

@@simonwest9450 We seem to be at cross purposes here. Some people seem to be talking about the longest distance but I assumed the discussion was about Vicky saying the Enterprise had been in continuous service for the longest period of time of any named service. There's a difference between the Enterprise which is the name of the service and the Flying Scotsman (for example) which is a single train each day, ie not all Edinburgh-London trains are called Flying Scotsman.

There is two types of Enterprise the Dublin to Cork one and the Dublin to Belfast one

They also use the locos to haul freight and backup for the Grand Hibernian train. The coaches could have been getting tested

She said Ireland

Too late

I was surprised it took so long, even allowing for the stops. But if they introduced an express wouldn't it still get stuck behind the local Dublin trains?

@@caw25sha Having looked at the alignment of the Railway from Malahide into Connolly station it looks like it would be possible to put in a 3rd track for express trains, between Malahide and Clongriffen, and from Raheny to Connolly - in the cutting sections they just have to move the platforms further back from the tracks.

Mista Fozz Irish Rail branding is both in the Irish language and has the colours of the Irish flag. As a result, people in a few of the areas the train passes through might take offence and take it out on the actual train. Even when the Irish Rail locomotives and trains come up into Northern Ireland (that aren't allocated to the Enterprise), they are in a plain grey and black livery with no logo! Additionally, it just reinforces the fact that the service is shared.

As far as I know the standard width of the carriages in Ireland is the same as it is in GB even though the track gauge itself is wider (meaning the tracks are closer together in Ireland)

Only some very old carriages that are no longer in use made use of the Irish loading gauge (eg. 10'2" wide Park Royal carriages).

It's now Layon Place, it's a silly name change but Central was not really central just became the main station during the troubles when the old Great Victoria Station was destroyed in the 70's.

@@garygallagher5978 Thanks, the one and only time I have visited Belfast I thought that Central Station was a bit out of town.

Yip. Enterprise even went back to the old school GM locos that used to haul the service for a while. Must have been hard up for locomotives

Line passenger operating speed is 90mph. So they are restricted to that.

The trains are De Dietrich carriages.

You can fly Belfast to Cork far quicker and quite cheaply.

@@nigelmchugh5541 You have to take claims like "Faster than road or rail" which Flybe actually paint on the sides of their planes with a big pinch of salt. The actual travel time may be quicker but assuming you are travelling city centre to city centre you typically need to allow about an hour each end getting to/from the airports, plus the long airport faff. These pretty much wipe out any time saving but as you say it can often be cheaper with budget airlines like Flybe. (Or are they Virgin now?)

True for a lot of airports, but small airports are quicker to get through, and often parking is very cloase to the departure hall. Belfast is great that way, and depending on where I lived, it would be far quicker than changing trains in Dublin, with a possible delay there too. Horses for courses, I suppose.

It's worth noting that Iarnród Éireann is their only official name, same way as Bus Éireann isn't called 'Irish Bus'. Vicki says Iarnród Éireann though but Geoff doesn't out of laziness unfortunately :(

thomasraden the jarlsberg we get In the uk is not made in Norway

Jarsberg in the EU is made in Ireland if I recall correctly.

@@IrishCraftBeerShow strange, nothing wrong with the real Norwegian stuff . Same with Swiss Emmenthal , mostly made in Germany

@@s125ish think it is just to avoid tariffs. Norway and Switzerland being outside the EU would have to pay import taxes. I'm a regular visitor to Norway and can't tell the difference, Jarsberg to me tastes the same at home and in Oslo. But I'm more of a Red Leicester fan...

Unfortunately not, no food or drinks provided at the moment.

Nope, because there is free travel on the island of Ireland because of a historical agreement called the Good Friday Agreement. Legally neither Ireland or the UK can prevent citizens from travelling freely (ie: no checks) between the two countries. Which is why Brexit got complicated and how we have ended up with the border in the Irish Sea.

Isle of man

Land's End to John o'Groats, which they just finished. There will be a video posted in the next few weeks.

thats because ibooking wise its 2 different companies Northern Ireland railways dont operate the services in Ireland Irish rail do and Irish rail do not operate services in Northern Ireland , Northern Ireland railways do as they are 2 different countries

You can if you book through Irish rails website

Not electric though. The IE/NIR 201 class is a bit like BR class 66.