Train Journey from Dublin to Cork, Ireland 1979

[@ShawnDaygoogles]

Impressed with the hearty comestibles on offer for dining. 3 dozen steaks, fresh plaice etc. Can’t even get a cup of tea now.

[@SirGilbot]

15 dozen ham sambos and a 100 portions of chipped potatos 👌

[@Sileaine]

Sure you can hardly get a kit kat now

[@shutup2751]

because everything is about money now, society is being deliberately demoralised

[@brokenglasses121345]

Herself and I took a trip on this in August 1980, to pick up a car I'd bought in Killarney (I spotted it in Tarrants VW garage while working in Kerry that week doing engineering surveys of the new RTE TV transmitters. Our survey van had broken a clutch cable). Lovely journey, change train in Mallow for Killarney. In the diner you could get a really nice scrambled egg with smoked salmon on the breakfast menu, juice, toast and tea served in a little silver plate teapot. Memorable day out, but I'll always remember the slow pass by of the Buttevant train wreck which had occurred a few days previously. Strangest thing, August three years later we cycled/railed around Ireland, Dublin, Wexford, Rosslare, Waterford, Mallow, Cork, then Tralee an back home to Kildare Station. On the home leg we passed the wreckage of the Cherryville crash which had occurred while we toured. At that stage I had left RTE in 81, and was commuting in and out of Dublin on the newly reopened Maynooth line, in a mix of intercitys, Cravens and plastic seated push pulls. I commuted this line daily for 39 years, until retirement in late 2020. Worst I've seen on that line in forty years was a derailed freighter in Maynooth, runaway engine that was sent up the siding in Clonsilla and caught fire on buffer impact, and being the only passanger on the last train into town on the way to my staff Xmas party, when we hit a cow in Ashtown. Cow was only stunned, I offered to help the driver move her off the line. Have my travel pass now, time for a few more trips.

[@yant8777]

Lovely memory,thanks for sharing.

[@alllovingcowherdboy4475]

Jaysus...exciting stuff surely

[@annieroche22]

I got the last train (9pm) from Dublin to cork in around 2006. The train hit a cow as well then. As a farmers daughter, I understand that they can easily get through fencing. Didn't get home until 3am

[@bridgetnolan3947]

Lovely memories, thanks for sharing. I spent my childhood playing on the railway banks 4 miles outside of Athy. Trains are a lovely way to travel.

[@anoodono1841]

Enjoy ure free trips

[@stephenkful]

I was born in 1995 so these videos are a priceless snapshot of the city I was born and raised in throughout the 20th century. Thanks so much for these priceless glimpses into what has or has not changed in Ireland. And I never have to deal with sponsorships or ads for the pleasure 🙏

[@burntbacon7995]

Shut up, snowflake.

[@caranook]

I’m exactly the same, born in 96 and i love seeing the history of the place I grew up in. So interesting!

[@soldier2297]

Before we were blessed with diversity huh 😄😄😄

[@CastleKnight7]

@@soldier2297 What colour is a soul?

[@soldier2297]

@@CastleKnight7 ask that question to the racists celebrating Black history month

[@patrickryan5570]

Great memories of my childhood travelling on the train from Thurles to Dublin - It was like a magical moment in life for the first time getting to travel on the train to the big city lights - I still love trains and those days inspired me to travel on the trains around the world - I would end up in Dublin as student in the 80s but unfortunately the Irish economy at that time was going down the crapper - Then my train became a plane as I flew out of Ireland for good.

[@kadijaish]

When did you left?

[@cheri238]

I just found CR'S Video Vaults. I am grateful for these videos. Amazing work. I am eternally grateful. I challenge myself everday to gain knowledge of our world 🌎. Love from America. ❤️

[@BrianBoru5523]

A national treasure for sure.

[@marymary5494]

Fabulous nostalgia here. I remember visiting Ireland every summer 1960’s/70’s, we would travel by train from Lincolnshire then the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin, finally we would get the train to Mayo. I recall my Mum telling us to listen to the noise the train made on the rails, she would say it sounds like “Going home, going home.” ☺️

[@vivianhughes9347]

A lovely memory. Thanks for sharing. My late wife was originally from Belmullet so did that journey from England many times.

[@alllovingcowherdboy4475]

It is most amazing to me the incredible and precise engineering that goes into creating and maintaining the undercarriage of a train. So many parts have to align properly, so many pipes and springs have to work in conjunction with each other in order to have the train run without a hitch. My hat is off to such designers and manufacturers of the myriad moving parts and to the men who put them all together to give us trains. And also to the trained up train drivers who we often see peering into the dark underbelly of the carriages to ensure all is ok for the journey. Well done. Bravo.

[@colors6692]

We can thank continental brains for that!

[@elvissam100]

I was 10 years old, I want to go back to this Dublin again ❤️

[@lmc4964]

my mother was from kerry so we always did the Dublin to Killarney via this magical place called Limerick junction back in the 70's and ealy 80's. nice memories getting a meal or snacks form the cart.

[@daniellinehan63]

Saw that Limerick Station nr.the soccer field in '94.Beautiful.

[@michaelwalsh9145]

You could also go to Galway through limerick junction but by the mid 80’s you’d have to take the cork Dublin train to port Arlington and wait for the Dublin Galway train.

[@bridgetroche8128]

A wonderful nostalgic video. Great food on board back then. We've gone backwards. The same locos are driven today for freight work. The drivers still book on the same way. Lovely video.

[@andrewclark8630]

They're the old British Rail Mark 2 carriages. A more civilised age with proper dining on the train.

[@sabrinajoyce9540]

We need our railway lines opened up again for bettet connections throughout our whole country

[@vingotaq777]

I remember the sound of those old CIE locomotive engines , it was music to my ears

[@michaelwalsh9145]

I can still hear that sound when ever I think back.

[@AaronSmart.online]

The 071 class are still in regular use for freight, and occasionally for diesel railtours

[@daveyddunne]

Simply brilliant, my grandfather worked in Inchicore Works up until 1993. I can remember my first train journey, which was to Wexford back in about 1987. The train looked exactly the same as in the video!

[@tomofield]

Can't get a cup of tea on the train today! 🤣

[@jigsey.]

Traveling from cork to Dublin seems a lot better in 1985 than it does today

[@davidparks6637]

Proper trains with proper dining cars and carrying parcels, newspapers and mail. Doors with opening windows......but CIE knows what the public wants is 22000 airtight, sardine cans.

[@jigsey.]

@@davidparks6637 yep... Booked tickets the other week...from mallow to Dublin....even reserved seats...got the on the booked seats were taken up by some drunken louts who refused to move... The ticket man was non existent... After a bit of a chat the 4 gentleman agreed to move so my party could take their seats ..

[@davidpryle3935]

It’s 1979.

[@jigsey.]

@@davidpryle3935 1970 - 1989 was all the same year back then ..things didn't change until Italia 90

[@davidpryle3935]

@@jigsey. Yeah, I know what you mean. But hey, what about Euro 88, Stuttgart and all that 😀

[@dannyspelman1468]

I was born in 1984, in Dublin. We mostly used the Dart but I remember that orange train with the black running along the windows passing our station. It frightened the Hell out of me when it passed because of the speed, the horn and the noise of the diesel engine. I remember my uncles learned to grab me and put their big hands over my ears whenever they saw it approaching because I would scream in fear and start crying! 🤣 Good times.

[@patrickwarby1140]

Pity the don't make short films like these anymore. Love the back round sounds and the monotone narration.

[@paulbelfastlimerick5547]

I can't believe that I have only seen this clip for the first time on 16th December 2022, 43 years after the documentary was made. I was 12-13 in 1979 and it brings it all back to me. My grandfather worked in Colbert and I can remember being taken for "free" journeys in guards vans earlier in the 70s too. CIÉ were much better than BR for grub and I think they had a subsidiary that provided the catering staff. For the benefit of younger viewers, absolutely every member of the travelling public had to go the ticket office to but a rectangular ticket stamped (then) by an Almex machine AND apart from a few miles on the main line, there used to be a "clickety clack" noise as rails came separately. And of course, let's not forget that the 071s are still going strong albeit on the few remaining freight workings and infrastructure trains.

[@ciaranburke3243]

Very cool, cant even buy a sandwich on today's long distance journeys 😁

[@RJH1971]

I know man, I couldn't believe it, steaks! Plaice! Bring it back!

[@serbkebab2763]

@@RJH1971 And then you'd be complaining about the price. Moaners gonna moan.

[@michaelwalsh9145]

@@serbkebab2763 yet here you are moaning about moaners, hypocrite.

[@Juliukas101]

I had to buy my cup of tea at Limerick Colbert station before changing trains!

[@ewanduffy]

08:45 Taking a motorbike on the train! Health & Safety how are ya!

[@vulgivagu]

Here in the UK I used to take my NSU Quickly on the train to Waterloo many times. They had the wonderful guard's vans then that you could put anything in. Today I can't even get a bike on the London train.

[@hoptops8627]

Great video thanks for upload

[@jakmak1199]

Girl with the Honda 50 @ 8:46

[@drawingboard82]

I used to travel from castlebar to Dublin in the 80s as a kid. Looked exactly like this, although with mk3 coaches

[@tomv4408]

Thanks for the video! Couldn't help noticing the ashtrays in the boardroom.

[@RJH1971]

05:17 check out the catering!!! Dozens of steaks, chicken ham and plaice! Long gone are the days... 09:46 bit scabby with the bread though...

[@Juliukas101]

I was quite surprised at all the fancy food on offer! Wow! And they were so carefully slicing that loaf! Those were the days, where you could get your fortune told on a machine, then have a nice meal on the train to Cork!

[@sitaruim]

It leaves no doubt, that society was much more stout and cohesive back then. The good old days, indeed!

[@seanpendulum5121]

Stout and cohesive...like it!!

[@sitaruim]

@@seanpendulum5121 Thanks

[@davidcolreavy8077]

Brilliant railway of old CIE many memories find more please 🙏

[@seancourtney9021]

I moved to Dublin from Cork in 1972 and lived there for two years. On Friday afternoon, I joined the throng of young 20 somethings like myself 'abandoning' the Capitol for our Homes every (other) weekend. We took the bus from the center of Dublin out to Euston and then the Train to Cork. God be with those days!

[@aidanoshea7795]

Heuston in Dublin, not Euston in London

[@johnmcgahern3946]

@@aidanoshea7795 👍

[@Drumm3rB0y]

Dublin is the real capital

[@opencurtin]

@@Drumm3rB0y No it’s not it’s Cork the UN has even said so lol

[@christopherbentley5216]

I did that trip 1977. Working on the Kinsale offshore gas pipeline.

[@johnmehaffey9953]

And not a mobile phone in sight, I’ve been promising myself to take this journey for a few years now Covid stopped me so hopefully I’ll get to do it soon, my wife’s grandmother traveled from Belfast to cork and beyond (she was born in west cork) many times from the steam to the diesel and getting from Amiens st to heuston in those days was a nightmare, the quays hardly moved sometimes if someone broke down but happier and less hectic days, lovely post

[@Jaymes400]

to be fair, the only reason there isn't a mobile phone in sight is because nobody had mobile phones in 1979, if mobile phones were around then as they are now every single person in this video would have had one, so it's not all that impressive that they don't.

[@Sileaine]

Life was definitely a lot easier then... if you were a man. People bought loads of papers and magazines I remember some comics would be on sale on the train that you couldn't buy in Cork

[@dechannigan2980]

The western corridor Sligo to limerick line should have been maintained and extended to kerry or Cork.

[@Dreyno]

The whole western seaboard is decades behind. How Cork/Limerick doesn’t have a motorway is beyond me. Probably should’ve been built before Dublin/Galway. They closed the Limerick/Sligo line and didn’t upgrade the roads until recently when the motorway to Tuam opened. The road from Charlestown to Sligo is an embarrassment. An absolute disgrace.

[@richiehoyt8487]

@@Dreyno Cor! I was just about to come on here and make a sarcastic comment along the lines of "Oh Well, it might be worse, at least Limerick and Cork have the motorway link..." (They don't, of course!) Now I don't have to!

[@ArcadiaJunctionHobbies]

The line was dead in the water and had no passengers and in the end the locals stopped using the freight. It was a miracle it lasted till 1975.

[@Dreyno]

@@ArcadiaJunctionHobbies People stopped using it for freight because it was horrendous. They lost a baler on my father. A massive hay baler on it’s own flatcar. They also lost a dog that was sent to my mother by a breeder. Turned up days later smeared in excrement, starving and dehydrated. It was desperately unreliable. It was sheer mismanagement that stopped people using it. Passengers started using buses because it was actually faster. The ‘Burma Road’ as it was called was built on the cheap. It had too many corners and crossings and journeys were slow. When it closed it was with the promise of improved road infrastructure. There is still parts of that road that have had no improvements made in the almost half century since. You could make almost any train line in the world run badly enough that people stop using it and use the low ridership to justify closing it. It’s not so much that I think that the line could’ve/should’ve been saved. But not improving the roads for so long after is unacceptable.

[@ArcadiaJunctionHobbies]

@@Dreyno Yes I heard about this. That happened all over the network. CIE was a disaster. But the line was doomed - and still is - because it was little more than a tramway north of Tuam. There was never really a Limerick to Sligo line. There was a Limerick to Tuam railway line, and from there a light railway to Coolooney - pointing in the wrong direction! The people who think this line is coming back are naive. To get the Athenry to Sligo section up to modern standards would cost BILLIONS. And for what? There is no population north of Limerick to justify it. Galway is not even on the line. Another lie/myth about it. Having said all this. I do think a commuter line from Tuam into Galway is a decent idea for the future.

[@laetitialogan2002]

This was just lovely..thank you so much for uploading

[@steeviebops]

I saw a clip which I think was from this programme but for the life of me I can't seem to find it again. It showed a laboratory in Inchicore where they examined oil samples from the engines in order to predict engine failures.

[@josephturner4047]

Awesome. I left the RN in 79. Joined BR at Helensburgh. I sometimes wonder how things might have turned out of I had crossed the Irish sea.

[@thomasburke2683]

Helensburgh on the north bank of the Clyde. An amazing contrast between the suburban electric terminus of Helensburgh Central and the rural tranquility of Helensburgh upper, little more than a mile away. Helensburgh Upper was the first West Highland station I encountered back in 1978 and the mere thought of these stations, simple but full of character, always cheers me up.

[@silvergirl2847]

1981.forst.trip to dublinathe ripe.old.age off 9 on our school tour it was fabulous 😍

[@Juliukas101]

LOL! Old Heuston station looked different back then with those black and white tiles...and that fortune-telling machine! Haha! Catering seemed good. I went from Dublin to Nenagh and couldn't even get a cup of tea :( Did you see how carefully he was slicing that loaf?! I don't like the area around Heuston station, especially Infirmary Road...it has a really weird vibe to it that gives me the creeps!

[@nordiskkatt]

The list of foods starting at about 5:10 simultaneously makes my mouth water, and my soul feel a bit discouraged. When did we stop eating delicious, simple foods, and when did we get convinced that a diet of nothing but carbs was a good idea?

[@RYNT1157]

Drivers Jack Duggan and Paddy Guilfoyle , loco foreman Jimmy Nolan Inchicore. Train sent away by Stationmaster Jack Storey at Heuston.

[@JaffaGaffa]

And 25 years later I and my then GF (Irish) took a train from there to Galway. The fact that they served pints onboard made my happy. No such thing at the time in Sweden :) and those carridges almost looks familire

[@fintan2830]

10:29 Sizzling through Sallins

[@mrjdsworld80]

10:24 that’s the front page of The Irish Press newspaper of Wednesday, 15 November 1978.

[@jaws6869]

Another great video, thanks 😊 👍

[@alllovingcowherdboy4475]

Does anyone miss being able to stick their head out the door window and feeling the wind in your face and being afraid you'd get your head knocked off by a telegraph pole or a passing train

[@Steve14ps]

Yes!!

[@raygreen5926]

Yes. I remember sticking my head out too in the rushing train and afraid of decapitation

[@michaelwalsh9145]

In fairness you’d want to be fairly stupid to do that.

[@alllovingcowherdboy4475]

@@michaelwalsh9145 then most all of us are stupid because it was fun not stupid

[@seanredmond8988]

FHESTY a friend of mind tried to be a train robber but his horse couldnt keep the pace. He left Ireland in 1987 and got married at the train station in Alburquerque New Mexico in 1996. Twas a great day - we call his wife FHESTETTE and a handsome lucky woman she is.

[@andrew-hd8do]

I was bortn in 79..great year

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Looking forward to catching the train to Cork next year.

[@thomasburke2683]

Amazing how 084 is prepared and checked in Inchicore for this service but 083 couples up to the train. They must think the viewers are all zombies. That aside, a well presented video. Is pp O'Reilly the narrator?

[@michaelwalsh9145]

It was just showing the process, nobody was trying to fool you.

[@laughlot]

Norris Davidson is the narrator

[@MrT79shakeshake]

7:46 the greatest moment of this film is the whistle of that EMD.

[@user39h2j8il]

The days when people gave a damn about doing their job properly, and with pride.

[@jgcondron]

A year later the worst railway fatality happened because they failed at the most basic task of keeping people safe. The railways were a death trap until Irish Rail took over.

[@chrisclark1761]

@6:58 Classic state companie. Working environment mouldy dirty.

[@eddiestaunton514]

Awesome

[@Fcutdlady]

I was going to ask is 084 getting a new break shoe (or what looks like it) in Inchicore Railworks? Manys the time I've been catching trains from Hueston to various places and took photos of the Inchicore scrap line from the door window of a 22k or mark 4 railcar in more modern times then shown here !

[@margaretnesbeth593]

Did you know there are no train direction signs anywhere in Dublin to inform you where this station is located, the locals know, but you can forget it if you are a tourist or a visitor to the city, nowhere in O'Connel st is there any mention of this station.

[@FionanUaMurchadha]

Great grandfather used to do this train for 40 years from the 20s to the 60s

[@ewanduffy]

11:36 Spotted the Journal of the Irish Railway Record Society on the table.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Love his paisley tie.

[@noelmaher4633]

Observation, lads camera crew here tomorrow, go up to stores and get Hardhat, and Wear them!

[@crh84]

This is brilliant

[@daraghoshea7858]

Amazing content

[@MichaelODonoghueMOD]

I want that catering service. I can't remember the last time I had something decent to eat on a train.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Lots to think about in that job.

[@dgoggin2k10]

Where can we watch the full episode

[@mcevoyproduction1231]

Have you any videos of the train driving in the west of cork?

[@newshades7009]

when i went to ireland on holidays in the sixties the only station my dad showed us was knocklong

[@Dreyno]

The train wash must’ve stopped working some time in the 80s because they used to be filthy in the 90s.

[@burntbacon7995]

A bit like yourself so, gobshite.

[@capnskiddies]

That train is freshly painted. Either painted specifically for the film or coincidentally and then nominated as the set to be filmed.

[@brianbadonde8700]

The orange and black trains stand out in my mind when did they change them

[@samnicholson5051]

During the 2000s

[@lcannonplo4411]

He leaves the shed on 084 but it's 083 that takes the train??

[@orlacampbell518]

Is there a part 2 to this video

[@patnagle5031]

wow look at the size of the sliced pan bread compared to today

[@alllovingcowherdboy4475]

I claim the fame of being the first person to do my morning Yoga exercises on an Irish train for a full hour in a carriage aisle and neither the passengers nor ticket inspector batted an eyelid.

[@ЕвгенийБойко-э9ь]

Looking so romantic 😍 💕 🇮🇪

[@sidewindersid4180]

This video needs to shared more

[@handeyecoordinationskills]

I wonder would the driver know Jimmy Maher from cathedral road in CORK who was my aunt's husband ?

[@daniellinehan63]

Took train from Galway- Dublin & back in '94.Had beers with 2 Swedish gals going and a gent about 85. Going back had a huge dinner of eggs, rashers, bangers, beans, tomato and Jameson's fruitcake.Then the Ukrainian lads ac.the way passed around the poteen and.... Great time!

[@72mossy]

Made a few trips up to the zoo as a kid in the 70s from Templemore

[@Mishima505]

I hope the bar was well-stocked…😉

[@ednorton47]

It would have to be in Ireland.

[@michaelwalsh9145]

@@ednorton47 drunks were thrown off trains even back then.

[@willhovell9019]

Uniforms much smarter than British Railways. Mark II coaches. Great stuff.

[@capnskiddies]

Those are MkII coaches. Mark 3 had powered doors

[@haralamc]

Im pretty sure those trains were still running in early 2000s, at least the ones between killarney and mallow were anyway 🤣

[@michaelwalsh9145]

There was one going from Dublin to Galway in 2007

[@europa2000man]

The MK2 carriages (seen here) were in use from the 70s up to about 2006. The MK3 carriages which were built in the 80s were in use until 2009 on the main lines. The MK2s were the first carriages in Ireland to have air conditioning. Before this you had to open a window for cold air, hence why these carriages don’t have windows you can open (apart from the doors). The MK3 push pull stock which were built in the late 80s had windows you could open because they weren’t able to install air conditioning due to its electrical system.

[@europa2000man]

The ticket man says the price for a return to Tralee is £7.50. That’s just over €48 in today’s money. A return to Tralee from Dublin is nearly €68 (even if you get the low fare, it’s still €49.98 (€50 basically)).

[@jgcondron]

Yes, but wages were much much lower. Adjusted for inflation, the average wage in 1979 is about 55% of today's median wage.

[@europa2000man]

@@jgcondronThat’s the unfortunate side to it. Wages were bad back then

[@jgcondron]

I think she was given a reduced fare. You'd have to halve the ticket prices as under 26s pay roughly half the fare today.

[@jgcondron]

€32 booked online for two flexible single tickets if you're under 26.

[@HistoricUlster]

😊oh I would love that map

[@Jaymes400]

last time I got a train from Dublin to Cork was about 15 years ago, and the one way ticket cost me 73 Euro!, to sit on a cold ancient train for 2 hours. needless to say that i've never wasted my money on that kind of experience since then lol. great video though!,

[@michaelwalsh9145]

Those old trains were out of service then, maybe one going to Galway but definitely not cork

[@kirbyculp3449]

For some awful train stories check out the YT channel Ushanka Show. Sergei has some stories about travelling by train in the USSR.

[@ignoblesurfer6281]

What's this guy's accent? Is it upper-class Irish?

[@GodOfVictory501]

Back then when an Irish person was well educated, it was reflected in their enunciation (particularly if they had an intention of going into television or radio broadcasting with Rte). Nowadays, this kind of plummy, classic accent is rare in Irish broadcasting - replaced by a kind of drab Mid-atlantic accent.

[@ProFTowN]

them were the days..a smoke on the train...2022 now.. the gimp train...good luck...

[@DartzIRL]

084 would've been brand new at the time. Not even run in.

[@sitluxetluxfuit4481]

The building is still the same , no improvements for forty plus years .

[@joboward]

rubbish, theres a supermacs now

[@Juliukas101]

I liked the fortune-telling machine. Those black and white tiles were a bit strange, though.

[@007eumamerda]

I don't see the grey tracksuit "just kids" attacking people. Must be good times.

[@MrJoemolin]

Loving the proper pronunciation of Portlaoise instead of Portleash.

[@Alphae21]

when is it said

[@Alphae21]

12:24 it is said as portleash

[@emmayoung3355]

They could have opened the bottle of wine for him!

[@peterlewis7228]

What? Where is Dublin and where is Cork? Ok a bit of Dublin. And!

[@tompollard6643]

The narrator? Sounds so perfectly West British... RTE 🤣

[@OP-vt2xj]

Painful, tortured accent.

[@t.p.mckenna]

Do you want chips with that? Oh, no, I can see you've plenty.

[@samnicholson5051]

Anglo Irish. The narrator was Norris Davidson (not the same person as David Norris, whatever the parallels) who was from a very upper class background.

[@ianhudson2193]

Shame it dosent bother to say it's virtually none of the original film....

[@PDScally]

Trains were so much better back then, now there is no restaurant car, no shop, no table service and no alcohol. Back then you could have a freshly cooked steak dinner with a bottle of wine served to you at your seat, but now you have nothing. We are going backwards about customer service.

[@laetitialogan2002]

Cant even get a cup of tea now on the trains, not a drop of water..its a shame

[@jgcondron]

Nostalgia is great for rotting people's brains. Thankfully, we have proper train services today instead of these slow, overpriced offerings with only a handful of trains per day on tracks that were absolutely shocking and where passenger fatalities happened every few years.

[@alfredroyal3473]

It looked like Ireland with Irish people in it. Not now.

[@Alphae21]

are you blind by any chance

[@Juliukas101]

Oh shut up, you miserable bastard! :(

[@liamfoley9614]

God be with the days. You can't even get an overpriced stale sandwich these days.

[@llamashockz]

amazing how much its regressed since

[@bob-seek-destroy-sd1708]

Wow 120 portions of bacon 90 portions of sausages 20 portions of chops 5 tin pans of bread 8 large toasting pans 20 brown cakes 15 dozen ham sandwiches 2 to 3 dozen steaks 12 portions of chicken and ham 2 pounds of cold roast beef and 12 portions of plaice 100 portions of chip potatoes and milk 36 pints. That's not including tea coffee. Guinness whiskey vodka and chocolate bars Holy moly you would NEVER see that again we be lucky to get a badly watered down tea for 3.50 and a kit kat for 2 euro. Irish rail really went downhill I remember in 2004 on the mk2s to sligo the bar would open 10 minutes after leaving connolly and I was able to get a vodka 7up and ham and cheese sandwich for a 5er even in March 2003 the Wexford to connolly mk2 I could smell the dinner been cooked it was so nice. Pity well never have a proper railway like that anymore

[@jgcondron]

Yeah, it was great... Unaffordably expensive tickets, people dying in train crashes every couple of years. A handful of trains per day between our two largest cities. Tracks crumbling away. No DART, no proper commuter services and jointed track for added boneshaking. Train tickets are cheaper today in absolute terms than they were 20 years ago. In the 1980's there were only 7 trains to Cork on most weekdays. There are 16 per day today and the journey time is 21 minutes faster. Galway had 5 weekday trains per day to Dublin. It has 9 today and 11 at the end of next month. Waterford had 4 - it has 7 today and it will be 8 in a couple of months. Today Cork and Limerick have hourly service and Belfast soon to follow in October. Waterford, Sligo and Tralee have two-hourly service and Galway better than two hourly. Cork has got a proper suburban rail network. Towns on commuter lines like Portlaoise have over 70 trains in both directions per weekday. Perhaps one of their greatest achievements, Irish Rail have shut down over 1,650 level crossings on active lines in the span of roughly 26 years. But most importantly of all - there has never been a passenger fatality since Irish Rail took over in 1987.

[@seanbonella]

when people actually worked on trains....