A NEW exhibition has been launched at Belfast and Dublin's main train stations to mark the 75th anniversary of the Enterprise rail service.
Photos of trains that have connected the cities since the first Enterprise service departed Belfast on August 11, 1947 have gone on display at the city's Lanyon Place station and at Connelly Station in Dublin.
The exhibition is hosted by Iarnród Éireann and Translink, which jointly run the service.
That first train was a seven-carriage steam engine, and for the first year of service, just one train in each direction operated daily. There are now eight daily Enterprise trains departing in each city.
The exhibition covers moments in the service's history including the Peace Train Operation in protest at bombings targeting the Belfast to Dublin railway line, as well as the 'Contraceptive Train' of 1971 organised by the Irish Womens Liberation Movement, in which women banned from purchasing contraceptive in the Republic travelled north to do so.
Iarnród Éireann Chief Executive Jim Meade, said: "The Enterprise service has a rich and evocative history. I am certain that our customers will very much enjoy the exhibition that is now on display at Lanyon Place and Connolly.
"The Enterprise train is a key economic and social connector for the people of Dublin, Belfast and the stations in between and we look forward to another 75 years of its successful operation."
Translink chief executive Chris Conway added: "Thank you to everyone who has shaped the Enterprise journey and we look forward to delivering our ambitious plans to secure the future of our flagship cross-border rail service."