Have you ever wondered how Irish Rail operates?

For this week’s edition of ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Lunchtime Live, Andrea spoke to Irish Rail communications manager Barry Kenny.

He said many changes are happening with the country’s rail network, from electric trains to new stations and increased services.

Mr Kenny said the first fleet of electric trains will arrive in Ireland later this year.

“But there will be a testing commission and approval phase first and at the back end of next year, they will start entering service,” he said.

“We have 185 of those carriages on order; they will both increase the capacity on the existing dart, and they’ll also go on the Dublin Drogheda line.

“In total, there are 885 carriages ordered but with the option to order up to 750 over the next few years.”

Andrea Gilligan and Barry Kenny in studio today. Image: Newstalk

The communications manager said the “totally new trains” will be transformative to rail travel in Ireland, once in service.

“They will improve things like accessibility, family spaces, and bicycle spaces,” he said.

“The commuter trains and intercity trains that we currently use on the commuter routes, a lot of those will be freed up and allow us to boost capacity elsewhere.

“All ships will rise with this tide.”

Irish Rail security

After one caller said they were recently intimidated by a gang of youths at a DART station, Mr Kenny said Irish Rail is doing their best to increase security.

“We have about three times more security patrols than we did about five years ago; we’ve significantly increased the number of resources there both in stations and on trains,” he said.

“One of the things with trains is they are individual carriage units if you have security up the train, you’re not going to see them.

“The benefit of new trains is they’ll be open all the way through which will improve security and monitoring.

“We have increased our security, and we are planning on increasing it further again later this year.”

Can dogs travel?

Mr Kenny said not all dogs are allowed to travel on trains.

“Obviously, assistance dogs are always permitted and if it’s a lap dog that can literally fit in your lap, you can bring it,” he said.

“If it’s any controlled breed they should have a muzzle and that is the rule; obviously we can’t accommodate large dogs.”

Some 45.5 million passengers travelled with Irish Rail last year.

You can listen back here:

Main image: Passengers and Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail train at Connolly station Dublin Ireland. Image: Jon Sparks / Alamy Stock Photo