Irish Rail said the service, which departs Kent Station at 6.15am, Monday to Friday, follows customer research that identified a particular demand for a faster morning service arriving in Dublin at 8.30am to facilitate business meeting needs.

Gerry Culligan, commercial director of Iarnród Éireann, announced the introduction of the service at a Cork Chamber of Commerce event this week.

“We intend for this to be the beginning of a series of continuing journey time improvements, including network upgrades to deliver further speed enhancements on all our services, to ensure the train is the most competitive option for you and your business needs,” said Mr Culligan.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS

Cork Chamber said that the development “will be hugely significant in facilitating business travel between Cork and Dublin”.

“This route has the potential to yield significant long-term benefits and will undoubtedly work to strengthen the business connectivity of the Cork region,” said chamber president Barrie O’Connell.

“At Cork Chamber, we are encouraged to see such progress and commend the efforts of Iarnród Éireann in engaging with the local business community in such a positive and proactive manner and we encourage the business community in Cork to support this new service.”

A number of changes to other services will also be implemented, having been the given approval by the National Transport Authority.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS