Train driver Les Besagni, who has worked for nearly 30 years on the Dublin-Belfast service, remembers conversations with colleagues early last year about whether there would be a demand for hourly services.
This week, the Enterprise service celebrates the first anniversary of the hourly service with record numbers travelling, backed by a €25 million subsidy over 2½ years from Dublin and Stormont, but mostly from Dublin.
Today, Besagni laughs about his past doubts.
“We thought that there’d never be a demand, never. It has doubled my expectations,” he tells The Irish Times.
So far, passenger numbers are up by 40.4 per cent, with nearly 200,000 people each month travelling all or part of the route during the height of the summer season.
Les Besagni is a train driver with Iarnroad Eireann. Photo: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times
Fifteen trains run daily, with stops in Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry and Portadown, compa
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