Plan for hourly Enterprise trains

Some of the staff who worked on the service in its first years were among those who gathered at Lanyon Station in Belfast yesterday to mark the date in 1947 when a seven-carriage steam train headed to Dublin, bringing about a new era in cross-border travel.

Ninety-four-year-old Annie Chambers, nee Connolly, from Belfast, worked in silver service on the dining car in the late 1940s and recalled some of the best years of her life.

She was the first woman to work on the Enterprise.

“I was the first and the only girl that worked on it for two years until I had to go to Yorkshire to help my family,” she said.

“It was wonderful, the best experience of my life. I think I was 18 or 19 and I loved it. I was over the moon when I got the job because I would be travelling.

“They were the very best days of my life. I loved every minute of it and I’d never have dreamed of taking a day off.

“It was very grand, we used to get quite a lot of Americans travelling on it. After the war they were able to travel a lot more.”

The 1947 inaugural train was operated by the Great Northern Railway company. It is now jointly operated by Translink NI Railways and Iarnrod Eireann.

In its first year in service, one train travelled in each direction. Seventy-five years later, the Enterprise service has eight daily departures in each direction.

Chris Conway, chief executive of Translink, said they hoped to move towards an hourly Enterprise service at peak times as early as next spring.

“We’re really proud to be here celebrating the 75th anniversary, I think everyone has used the Enterprise over the years at some point, connecting Belfast and Dublin, and the stations in between,” he said.

“We have already initiated a project team, and we hope to go into procurement for a new fleet next year which will allow us to get an hourly service within the next five years.”