It would be even being optimistic 4:40 Cork Belfast. and the return fare is 87.90, air competition will under cut that easily and the time is not attractive, competitive compared to road given the M50 at the moment and totally hammers the bus. When Belfast Dublin goes hourly it will be 5:50 ish end to end with changes still 2 hours faster than the bus. Of course this was tried in the mid 1950's and disappeared quickly afterwards.
You would need a common fleet of trains as well. The question is how reliable it could be having to operate through Heuston and Connolly, that means a spare train on standby at all times. This is rather fanciful given both Dublin Belfast and Dublin Cork are a shambles in reliability terms.
The issue here is it would cause total confusion for someone going to say Thurles Cork Mallow etc, do I go to Connolly or Heuston where will I get a seat, you can get round that by calling in Heuston P10 which would in turn inconvenience anyone in Heuston
Dublin Cork carries about 8 times more than Dublin Belfast. I'd see the demand as suburb to suburb so Midleton Cork Heuston Balbriggan will be do able very quickly post T21
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