The trolley service will return to Irish Rail from next month.

The food service was suspended during the pandemic and the company has struggled to find a bidder who would run the service for them.

Cork East TD James O'Connor met with Irish Rail CEO Jim Meade on Tuesday.

He told Breakfast Briefing things are going to change.

"This was part of his Oireachtas consultations that he would have with each group or party that would ask him to come to Leinster House," he said.

"During the meeting, a number of my colleagues... had raised issues around the catering onboard these train services.

"They are actually finding a solution at the moment after a very long period of time."

A man eats a sandwich on a train. Picture by: Shotshop GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

He said both the pandemic and Brexit played a role.

"[This] was driven on, unfortunately, by the pandemic and even Brexit had an impact," he said.

"From March onwards, they're going to start rolling out the catering again on trains on a phased basis.

"There's also going to be some investigation into the use of onboard vending machines as well for train services.

"So fingers crossed this is going to mean an enhanced level of choice.

"My understanding is that's what's going to be on offer - I do understand they are looking at the vending machine offer as well".

€1 million subvention

The food service is set to resume on the Cork-Dublin route.

Deputy O'Connor said the company that was running the operation previously could not afford to keep it going during COVID-19.

"Transport took a hit... in 2019, there was 50 million passenger journeys on Irish Rail," he said.

"By the end of 2021, it was down to 17.4 million - so the company that was running this operation, they were making a substantial loss."

An Irish Rail train standing at the platform at Claremorris station in Co Mayo. Picture by: Keith Heneghan / Alamy Stock Photo

He said the operation was not financially viable.

"My understanding is that it required somewhere in the approximate of €1 million in a subvention.

"So it wasn't just making any financial sense".

Deputy O'Connor said numbers returned to around 36 million passengers for 2022, with some 50 million passengers expected into 2024.

"They'll be back again where they were, which does mean there is an opportunity now for a commercial, proper-run service," he added.

Main image: A display of food in a train carriage in 2015. Picture by: Alamy Stock Photo