[Kilocharlie]

From the Irish Rail Facebook page:

We’ve just taken delivery of the first 12 of 57 new Intercity railcar carriages on order, a fleet expansion worth €140 million, at Dublin Port.

The remainder of the full order will be delivered through the rest of this year and early 2012, and you’ll see them roll out across the network from later this year.

We’ll put them where demand is greatest, and we’re also talking to Translink about possible use on extra Enterprise services, for an hourly service between Dublin and Belfast.

The order completes the transformation of Iarnród Éireann’s Intercity fleet from the oldest to the newest in Western Europe, along with the 67 CAF (Mark IV) carriages on the Dublin-Cork route.

This fleet was ordered from Mitsui of Japan, in partnership with Hyundai Rotem of the Republic of Korea and Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan, and were manufactured in Korea. The fleet was funded by the Exchequer under the transport capital investment programme.