Ride the Enterprise from Worldcon to Eurocon in 2019

Dublin’s bid for the 2019 Worldcon is unopposed, with less than a year til site selection voting takes place in Helsinki at Worldcon 75. Dublin’s proposed dates are Thursday, August 15 through Monday, August 19, 2019.

Dave Lally notes there also is a bid to have Belfast’s annual Titancon host the 2019 Eurocon. Its dates would be the week following Worldcon: Thursday, August 22-Monday, August 26, 2019. Titancon, a Game of Thrones themed convention, is the only Eurocon 2019 bid.

Lally says that if both Cons and Irish cities (100miles/160Km apart) win their respective bids, approaches will then be made to Iarnrod Eireann (Irish Rail) and to Translink (NI Railways) who jointly run the service, a train known as THE ENTERPRISE, and to CBS (who owns the Star Trek rights) to rename it for the duration of the two cons – THE ENTERPRISE: NGC 1701.

The Enterprise is an express train that runs between Dublin and Belfast eight times Monday through Saturday, and five times on Sunday. Lally says it’s had that name since August 1947 (long, long before Roddenberry, Shatner and Stewart et al).

6 thoughts on “Ride the Enterprise from Worldcon to Eurocon in 2019

  1. Oh, this looks as though it would be great fun! If I’m not able to do Helsinki, I would probably be able to do this.

  2. Belfast is a great town that not many people, including those from Ireland / England, ever visit. I hope this happens.

  3. Even if they can’t get the licensing agreed, it’s still called the Enterprise, and it still runs between the two cities.

    PS, if you’re travelling from Britain – you can SailRail to Belfast and back from Dublin. I expect there will be arrangements to get lots of people on the same sailing in each direction so we can fandom-up a ship for a few hours.

  4. Greetings from Day 3 of a successful U-Con (incorporating both the annual Eurocon –the European SF Convention– and SFCD-Con –the annual German Nat SFCon) here in very warm and sunny Dortmond. At the ESFS (European SF Society) Business Meeting held here yesterday, the only bid for Eurocon 2019 was won by Titancon- the annual SF Con (which is mainly ***though not solely*** Game of Thrones-themed) held in Belfast N/Ireland. Dates are confirmed as Thu 22-Sat 24 August (with a Community Day/traditional G of T locations coach tour on the Sunday Aug 25). Details: titancon(dot)com. The 2019 GoHs will be announced later-after consultation with Dublin Worldcon. This Eurocon is scheduled exactly one week after the proposed 2019 Worldcon in Dublin (Thu 15-Mon 19 August) and which is voted on at Worldcon 2017/Helsinki (Aug). Thus phase 1 of a proposed three-phased SF project has been achieved. Phase 2 is of course Dublin Worldcon and phase 3 (an personal initiative by this writer)–once the 1st two phases are completed– is trying to link with an SF theme, “The Enterprise” express train which runs between the two Irish Con Cities. On winning the Eurocon 2019 bid, Belfast,s Eurocon 2019 co-chair Phil Lowles apologised (to huge applause from almost all fen attending) –on behalf of the UK which 52% overall voted for “Brexit” (ie leave the EU). He commented on the one big relevent-to-the-two-Cons “elephant in the room” : namely the issue of the currently nominal Irish Land Border –between Ireland (Dublin) and N/Ireland (Belfast) and the March 2019 scheduled exit by the UK from the EU -taking NI with it. This is even tho NI itself voted in the UK Referendum to stay in the EU: ie “Bremain”! If the UK,s proposed EU exit is implemented in 2019, it **may** cause some minor problems on travel between the Belfast and Dublin-based Cons (ie the re-imposition of Customs controls). However he stated that that would be minimised by Eurocon/Titancon 2019 as far as possible and that Brexit may in fact not be started by then anyway and perhaps indeed cancelled altogether. (Note: increased post Brexit/Bremain Referendum costs are starting to bite in the UK (inflation has already leapt to 2.9%pa) as the value of the beleagured UK Pound Sterling has dropped against the Euro and other currencies incl the US$-thus causing increased costs in all imports : esp food which the UK has to import a lot of). It was obvious at the ESFS Meeting and elsewhere at the Con (and noted amongst most European-based SF fen anyway) that Bremain views were predominant (ie most SF people are pro-European and –despite its problems (and it does have some)– pro EU). So now-on to Worldcon 2019 and phase 2!

  5. Dave Lally, thank you for the update! The odds are vanishingly small that I’ll get to go, but the Enterprise link sounds like a lovely idea for those who do.

    And thanks, also, for the update on the geopolitical border situation that may, or may not, make some difficulties for fen who want to do this.

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