[EnterpriseUser]

I took the 0905 Connolly Sligo yesterday (June 8). it was my first time on a 22000 railcar. The cabin is clean, bright if somewhat sparsely decorated. The air conditioning system worked very well and kept the carriage very cool. The lavatory was clean and well designed. The noise from the engine was greater than I expected although far superior to the 27-29000 classes. The seat was quite comfortable although felt hard when one sat in it first. The trolley service was good (the attendant came round three times). Inventory control could be better; for example there were only three sandwiches on the trolley! we arrived more or less on time despite the journey to Maynooth being incredibly slow; no evidence of engineering or other work on the line. It is illustrative of how well padded the timetable is in terms of recovery times that, despite being at least ten minutes late into Maynooth on an unambitious timetable, we still arrived on schedule. It was heartening to cross two six car sets at Longford and Boyle and see another such set in Sligo station. In common with all railway undertakings there are far too many announcements especially given the electronic screens at each end of the carriage.
Finally, IE should give some thought to having a Quiet Car as a passenger behind me was on her phone for the entire journey wth her male friend on the speaker of her mobile phone, speaking neither Irish or English!
I would use the service again and look forward to the introduction of the six car sets with catering and first class.
I flew back. Flying time was forty minutes; there was a delay of forty five minutes and an earlier check-in time giving a journey time by air of just over two hours at a cost of seventy Euro compared to the train cost of Euro38 one-way.
A major investment will be required in the Dublin-Maynooth section to remove level crossings etc and to make most effective use of approach/departure lines from and to Connolly/Docklands.