There is now a new hourly Enterprise Service from Belfast to Dublin. Just a pity there are no trains!

Philip O’Neill is a retired civil servant and should not be confused with the equally retired Chief Operating Officer of Translink also called Philip O’Neill

You may recall a while back I wrote an OP extolling the virtues of the new Belfast transport hub. At the time Grand Central Station was only open to buses, and the Hub only opened for train services recently. I was impressed by the detail that had gone into the new hub, Italian floors etc. Now that the trains are running I decided to go with a few friends on a day trip to Dublin, and to welcome the new one hour scheduling which had been introduced with much fanfare.

We had pre-booked our tickets and seats for the 10.00 train to Connolly so we could be together for the journey. We arrived at the Hub before 09.30 only to be told the train had not yet arrived. Some 10 minutes later we were told the train would not arrive until around 10. 20 and we should take a seat and wait. Thus the first issue, there were no seats on the concours, standing room only. At around 10.00 they then herded us on to platform six and told us we would still have to wait but behind a line on the ground this time. It was then we noticed the numbers of staff and managers around the platforms. There were lots, significantly more than you would expect, in fact I don’t recall seeing that many when I last travelled through Kingscross in London. Anyhow the train arrived at 10.20 and while we were waiting on it being cleaned, and “de-trained” , I( don’t know either), we were advised by staff there were issues with the booking system and we could not be guaranteed the seats we booked. Lovely. However, we stuck our elbows out and rushed to the first free carriage and got seats. 2 hours 30 odd minutes it took us to get to Dublin.

So we spent the day seeing the sights of Dublin, enjoying the ambiance and trying to figure out what had been built since we were last there.

We decided to catch the 18.50 train back to Belfast only to be told the line was closed and they did not know when it would reopen. Not helped by Connelly stations customer services which appeared to close at 19.00 we opted to go for the bus. Yes we could get the bus but only after paying an additional £17 and queueing for an hour on the street to ensure our place.

How was my experience of the train, well not very positive at all. Not only in relation to reliability, but in the lack or information/communication between provider and customers. Perhaps those abundant staff and managers could get back to the office and start looking at how to improve their service and communications. Had we known the train would not be available until 10.20 we could have gone and had a coffee.

So do I now believe the £300 plus millions that have been spent on the transport hub has been money well spent. Well, no. The new Hub has not addressed any of the fundamental issues with the transport infrastructure and perhaps some of that £300m clearly could have been invested better in track and signals. The Hub has not been a panacea for our transport woes, if anything it has exacerbated them and at the same time heightened the expectations of customers.

We arrived back in Belfast two hours later than planned and we had missed our last bus home which was at 22.00 . Thankfully a friend had agreed to pick us up, which introduced us to our final issue of the day, where could they meet us where could they park? The whole day was a transport fiasco, but thankfully we were only in Dublin for leisure purposes. If I had to go to Dublin for work, business or something important like a wedding would I use the train, probably not. Would I use the bus, well maybe. Would I consider using the car, most probably.

This is a guest slot to give a platform for new writers either as a one off, or a prelude to becoming part of the regular Slugger team.