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IRISH TRAIN TRAVEL can be fairly mundane – the longest journeys take hardly more than three hours, and you don’t tend to get much more excitement than drunken Irish people occupying seats they haven’t reserved.
Our train network is about to get a shot in the arm though, as the company behind the world-famous Orient Express is set to bring luxury train travel to these shores from late next year.
Belmond Limited, the company in question, operates hotel, train and river cruises across the globe.
The Belmond Grand Hibernian (as the train will be known) stems from the success the company has seen with similar train cruises in Scotland.
The train will consist of 11 Irish Rail carriages retrofitted to five-star standards, containing 20 luxury cabins. Maximum passenger capacity will be 40 people for each journey.
Irish Rail staff will run the train, while the new service should create 50 jobs.
Three different cruise options are on the table for two, four and six nights. The shortest sees the train visit Belfast from Dublin, while the four nighter travels from Dublin to Cork, Killarney and Galway. The six night option is a combination of the two .
As you might expect prices aren’t exactly cheap – ranging from €3,160 for the shortest trip, to €7,000 for the six-night tour.
But then the demographic expected to take advantage of the routes is mostly North American, a region where Belmond plans to spend an additional €900,000 on marketing on top of the €9.3 million it cost to refit the existing carriages.
It may be expensive, but if the Irish train’s promotional video is anything to go by, the food is top notch.
The service should launch by August 2016.
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I often thought if we had a rail network the whole way around the coast of ireland taking in some of the most beautiful coastal areas and operated steam trains on a 4 or 5 day trip around the country at an affordable rate that such a thing would be great for the country.
We used to have a very extensive railway network. The problem with it now like our economy, it stretches out from Dublin like a spiders legs with little inter country routes but sure then again we have a tiny population.
You may talk of Columbus’s sailing
Across the Atlantical Sea
But he never tried to go railing
From Ennis as far as Kilkee
You run for the train in the morning,
The excursion train starting at eight
You’re there when the clock gives the warnin’
And there for an hour you’ll wait
And as you’re waiting in the train,
You’ll hear the guard sing this refrain-
Are ye right there, Michael, are ye right?
Do you think that we’ll be there before the night?
Ye’ve been so long in startin’,
That ye couldn’t say for startin’
Still ye might now, Michael,
So ye might!
They find out where the engine’s been hiding,
And it drags you to Sweet Corofin;
Says the guard, Back her down on the siding
There’s the goods from Kilrush comin’ in.
Perhaps it comes in two hours,
Perhaps it breaks down on the way;
If it does, says the guard, be the powers,
We’re here for the rest of the day!
Spoken:
And while you sit and curse your luck
The train backs down into a truck.
Are ye right there, Michael, are ye right?
Have ye got the parcel there for Mrs. White?
Ye haven’t, oh begorra,
Say it’s comin’ down tomorra –
And well it might now, Michael,
So it might.
At Lahinch the sea shines like a jewel,
With joy you are ready to shout,
When the stoker cries out, There’s no fuel,
And the fire’s taytotally out.
But hand up that bit of log there –
I’ll soon have ye out of the fix;
There’s fine clamp of turf in the bog there.
And the rest go a-gatherin’ sticks.
Spoken:
And while you’re breakin’ bits of tree,
You hear some wise remarks like these -
Are ye right there, Michael? Are ye right?
Do ye think that you can get the fire to light?
Oh an hour you’ll require,
For the turf it might be drier –
Well it might now, Michael,
So it might.
@sergent. Just after singing that whole song. It will now be my ear worm for the day lol
The only burning question I have is: will you have to change Luxury trains in Mallow for Killarney?
No
they might change the sign in the station from Mallow to Mellow
A two-day Luxury Train ride from Dublin to Belfast…. Just let that sink in for a minute.
Or just let it sink.
Sure you’d walk it in that time.
Just picture it. A luxury train trip, stopped unexpectedly two miles outside Thurles staring at a cow in a field. It puts The Orient Express to shame.
Herder on the orient express.
I bet there’ll be rich folks eating in dem fancy dining cars,
They’ll probably be drinkin’ coffee and smoking big cigars.
Lets hope they dont use irish rail catering staff . Crap food . Zero customer service
Irish Rail don’t have catering staff
I wonder will I be able to use my travel pass??
Look up the prices they charge..it’s very plane to see it’s not for us ordinary folk like us.
I can just see our Irish millionaires and politicians mingling with the the worlds richest people, in luxury carriages, looking out the window at poor peasant paddy, digging turf or standing in a dole queue, I can see the train slowing done for a better look at the empty towns and villages in rural Ireland as they swallow their caviare and sip on their opulence…asking ‘were have they all gone’…????
That big chip must be weighing you down.
curry or gravy ?
Travel to broombridge in style..!
You could walk to Belfast in 2 days! How slow is this train going and will it hold up the normal service?
Isnt the train station from the quiet man still in use? Would be a great stop for tourists on the orient express or any other such tourist train.
The train station from The Quiet Man is still there in Ballyglunnin but unfortunately no trains run, in fact no trains run anywhere near it except for Athenry to Dublin, campaigners for years trying to get the West back on Track…
literally!
I’m thinking of opening a cruise line following the route of the former 48a.
With this announcement,will it mean that the elite will be using the same rail tracks as the peasants or will an entire new rail network have to be laid to accommodate ‘the great washed’ !!!!!!
Will the Luxury Rail Replacement Bus be waiting at Dundalk to transfer people to Belfasy due to a Security Alert on the line???
This is the most stupid idea I’ve ever heard!
Looks like the Emperor has some nice new clothes.
€3600 for the shortest trip, that means the closest most will get to that train is if we spot it at a station or rolling along the tracks.
I took the Orient Express from London to Rome about five years ago. It was awful, I would not recommend it and it wasn’t good value for money. Firstly, you live in a tiny space, at night the bunk bed comes out and one of you have to climb up and then down if you want to use the facilities at night. NOTE: The facilities are down the hall. There is a chair outside the loo where you can sit and wait if someone else is using it. There is NO SHOWER, you can wash up at the sink in your cabin. The food was OK, there was tons of it, if that’s your thing. The English women on the train used to dress up in the worst polyester outfits for dinner. Be forewarned, it’s not nearly as romantic as it sounds. On top of everything, we had a heatwave and there is zero air conditioning, so we just sweat. On the plus end of things, the scenery in Switzerland was lovely.
Oh, that’s really disappointing. It was on my bucket list but I guess the idea (probably from the poirot movie) is better than the real thing! Thanks
Within the first few paragraphs I realised I will probably always be too poor to see inside a carriage ! Bit steep!
I think the four nighter on the Dublin/Cork route would work very well as there actually may be a chance of getting trolly service before you get to Cork!
Ouch..pricey!
Excellent news – they can listen to Queen Elizabeth doing the “mind the gap” announcements in our train stations!
having been on a cruise, don’t see how a train could even try compete with it
have your say