Campaign to reintroduce catering service on Sligo-Dublin train sees Senator Cosgrove take matters into her own hands

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

Five years after the withdrawal of trolley catering services on intercity train services, Labour Party Senator Nessa Cosgrove has taken matters into her own hands as she attempts to raise awareness and put pressure on Irish Rail to ensure the service is returned to the Sligo line as it has been on other journeys.

Dismayed with a lack of progress with regard having a catering trolley since it was taken away during the pandemic, Senator Cosgrove recently took to distributing snacks on the train to help alleviate the hunger of passengers and also raise awareness of the ongoing situation.

Speaking about why the service needs to be reinstated, Senator Cosgrove said, “It breaks up the journey, particularly the long journeys. I don’t think it is fair to bring it back on the Cork-Dublin route because they say it is busier. That is not an argument to me, I think it should be public service obligated. It should be part of the experience of getting people off the roads and out of their cars and getting on to public transport. That train is three and a half hours and it can be delayed.”

As a regular user of the train service herself, Senator Cosgrove is in no doubt that there is a demand for the service being reinstated.

"Everyone wants it back and I don’t see how people can say that the demand isn’t there; the demand is definitely there. Those trains are really busy, it is clear to everyone how busy these trains are. Even the 5.40am train that I get on a Tuesday morning, that is full by the time you arrive in Dublin and even getting on in Sligo, it is very, very busy. It is the same coming back, I get different trains coming back on Thursdays and each one of them is really busy. There is definitely a demand.”

When asked why she feels the service has yet to be reinstated, Senator Cosgrove said she has been getting mixed messages but is adamant that as the Sligo line is one of the longest lines in the country it should be deemed a priority for the return of catering services.

"We keep getting mixed responses. Even within the space of a day I heard that the services were coming back to all Inter City trains before Christmas and then they came back and said this wasn’t true at all, they are still looking at ways to get more money. Money seems to be the big issue but it’s not like this hasn’t been raised before. I have been raising this for months. I have actually done up a little short video about the amount of times I have actually raised it and I am not the only one.

"I have asked how much it would cost to reinstate it and it is very hard to get proper figures around this, they say they are looking for preferred suppliers. Irish Rail say they are not getting the money from the National Transport Authority (NTA), then I asked the NTA and said ‘maybe you need to look for more money from the Department of Transport’, they are the ones who oversee with the budget.

"We can clearly see how much traction this has got, that there is a demand for this across the country. People want to sit and enjoy a cup of tea and it drives me mad when people say 'bring a flask’. I have loads of stuff with me, a laptop, bag for staying overnight; parents travelling with kids have loads with them. You have enough with you already, it is not that complicated and if you are on it for that long your drink could go cold and then you are walking around with a cold flask.”

Senator Cosgrove suggested a possible way forward in finding a resolution would be to look at the possibility of utilising local suppliers and insisted there is a demand from the public with regard transport infrastructure.

“They say they are looking at preferred suppliers, and in fairness to Mary Considine the new Chief Executive of Irish Rail, she said they are going to create a creative approach. I am interested to hear what that creative approach will be, it could be looking at local suppliers. We have a lot of local suppliers in Sligo that are really good. We have really good cafes and really good coffee shops and maybe that is something that could be looked at. Somebody else suggested having it as a social enterprise and that would be a really good idea, there has to be a way around it and we need to think outside the box about it.

“It is part of a wider conservation about the lack of transport infrastructure in the north west. We’ve been left behind for so long in terms of transport infrastructure. People want to live in the north west but might have to travel to Dublin for two days a week. If we really want to have proper balanced development, if we want to see our towns and villages grow, where people can live there and commute up to the bigger towns and cities while spending money in their local economy; to be able to do that we need to provide proper public transport services and part of that is having a catering trolley.”