Enterprise (train service)

Enterprise is the cross-border inter-city train service between Dublin Connolly in the Republic of Ireland and Belfast Central in Northern Ireland, jointly operated by Iarnród Éireann (IE) and NI Railways (NIR).
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History
The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) (GNR(I)) introduced the service as the "Enterprise Express" on 11 August 1947 in an attempt to compete with air and road transport which were challenging the railways. In particular, business travel was and is an important market. Customs checks were limited to the Belfast and Dublin terminals to reduce journey times by ensuring that journeys were non-stop, and advance booking was available. Apparently the name of the train comes from "the enterprising approach" that the GNR(I) took to make journeys more convenient for passengers despite the requirement for customs checks. The initial service ran between Belfast Great Victoria Street station and Dublin Amiens Street station, which was renamed Dublin Connolly in 1966.

In October 1950 the service was extended beyond Dublin to Cork. This proved unsuccessful and ceased in September 1953 when the governments of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland nationalised the GNR as the Great Northern Railway Board (GNRB). The Cork service's unpopularity may also have been due to the six-and-a-half-hour journey time.

On 1 October 1958 the GNRB was dissolved and its assets and liabilities were split between Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) and the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) — the predecessors of Iarnród Éireann (IE) and Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) respectively. Following the completion of the Belfast Central Line Project, the Belfast terminal moved to Belfast Central station in April 1976.

The service was upgraded in September 1997 with a new timetable and new coaching stock from French train makers De Dietrich Ferroviaire (now Alstom DDF). At this point the service, which had operated under either the IÉ or NIR brands, was branded separately as Enterprise.

The service has suffered disruption, particularly during the Troubles, when it was regularly halted by bomb threats. These became so frequent and caused such considerable disruption to the service that a campaigning group, the Peace Train Organisation was formed in 1989. Since the Northern Ireland peace process, however, such disruption has diminished. Renewed investment in recent years has seen the line upgraded to continuously welded track capable of 145 km/h running along the southern part of the route, as part of Iarnród Éireann's rail network upgrades. However, these speeds are not reached on the northern part of the route.

Timetable times vary between 1 hour 53 minutes (with one intermediate stop) and 2 hours 15 minutes (with four intermediate stops), an average speed of 97 and 81 km/h 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 21 August 2009 20 m 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 16 November with full services resumed.

Services
Passengers can travel "First+" or "Enterprise Class". Additional to a trolley service there is a "Café Bar". First+ offers a full three-course menu serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, air conditioning, tinted windows, adjustable blinds and individual reading lamps.

Current fleet
Each Push-pull trainset consists of seven coaches and a 201 Class locomotive. The 28 coaches 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 coach maintenance by NIR and locomotives maintained by IE. The coaching stock is based on the Class 373 EMU stock used by Eurostar, with the interiors identical. The EMU stock is articulated and permanently coupled, but the Enterprise is ordinary coaching stock.



The service has 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 is equipped with an ordinary control car, which has no power generating capability. This means that the locomotive has to provide all the power for the train, both motive and generating. Extended operation in this mode causes 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.

On 10 September 2012 a modified Mk 3 Generator van, former 7604, was introduced.

If an Enterprise set is unavailable, either NIR's "Gatwick" stock rake of coaches or an IÉ set can be used. Both NIR and IÉ have equipped six each of their newest DMUs (C3K, C4K, 22000, and 29000 ) to each other's specifications so they may be used in the event of a breakdown.

Description
The enterprise has many features. The order of the carriages are: DVT with first plus, first plus, buffet carriage, standard carriage, a second standard, two more standards, a locomotive (and sometimes a mark iii generator van).

DVT
All trains have a DVT, which is a control room where the driver operates the train. Each train is given a unique number, between 9001–9004. 9004 seems to be the most frequent one on duties, with 9003 being the second most. However 9001 is rare, for some unknown reason. 9002 would be the second rarest, seen on some duties. Inside the cab is a phone, a horn lever and one chair. The cab is air-conditioned. These only operate services from Belfast, as the locomotive goes north.

First plus (1)
The first first plus carriage is the first carriage of The Enterprise. It has 29 first plus seats, luggage area, wheelchair space, four main doors and two intermediate doors and weighs a total of 42 tonnes. The four main doors slide open, while the two intermediate doors (the drivers door and the entrance to the next carriage) are opened by hand.

First plus (2)
The second carriage in the enterprise is also the second first plus coach in the seven carriage train and has some differences to the first carriage. The coach has more passenger capacity then the first carriage and has 47 seats. These trains also have a unique number, between 9101–9104. They, like all the other carriages, have a special order, for example: the DVT 9002 goes with 9102. They have the same feature as the DVT with the same doors, and have first plus seats (no wheelchair space or luggage area) and weigh a total of 40 tonnes.

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 125 mph 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. This will remove the problems suffered by the 201 Class locomotives when using head-end power.

Future developments
Recent press reports have stated that NIR & IE plan to introduce a new hourly service. This was reiterated in a statement by Conor Murphy, the 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 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; the surplus of rolling stock held by IÉ following the introduction of the 22000 Class DMUs could potentially be used to enhance the frequency of the Enterprise. The line south of the border was upgraded to continuous welded rail in the 1990s, while NIR is making track improvements to allow an increase in speed. Enterprise would require a minimum of seven trains to operate an hourly service – IÉ has a significant number of stored Mark 3 rolling stock available, of which five sets are push-pull capable, while NIR has its "Gatwick" set that has also recently been converted to push-pull operation. The introduction of the 22000 Class has led to a surplus of locomotives that could be utilised. However, the major issue remains the capacity at Dublin Connolly, which is stretched. The transfer of Commuter services to Docklands and the Interconnector should go some way to alleviating capacity issues. Plans have also been mooted to transfer Enterprise's northern terminus from Belfast Central to Belfast Great Victoria Street, which is more centrally located and is co-located with Europa Buscentre, providing an integrated rail/bus journey to all parts of the island.

The Enterprise is undergoing a face-lift with the carriages being resprayed in silver with green livery, some of which can be seen at Translink's York Rd. Maintenance Depot.

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.

After years of saying the opposite, NIR has recently admitted that the train is so frequently broken down that it is no longer fit for purpose and requires £500 million investment to bring it up to an acceptable standard. Its average speed of 43 mph makes it one of the slowest intercity connections in Western Europe. With the faster road journey to Dublin and the Enterprise's unreliability and infrequency, it has been running at a loss as passengers switch to much cheaper and faster alternatives.