Irish Railway Record Society

STATIONS

Arklow   The siding is to be shortened to 50m to allow creation of 140 new car parking spaces.

Athlone   CIÉ Property Department has sought tenders for a ‘Masterplan for Athlone Rail and Bus Station’, which seeks to maximise the commercial potential of the site.

Ballinasloe   IÉ has applied for planning permission for erection of a new footbridge and lifts for the mobility impaired in conjunction with the construction of a new 174m long down platform. There is no space to extend the existing platform sandwiched between the level crossing and the architecturally significant former goods store.

Carlow   IÉ has applied for planning permission to demolish the signal cabin, which is a protected structure, to facilitate extending the down platform.

Cork    A €4m investment in improving facilities at Kent station commenced on 2 October. Work includes extending the concourse into the area underneath the existing canopy area to provide a new waiting area for passengers. New customer information displays and a new public address system are to be installed. The existing retail units will be relocated and additional units will be provided. The Fastrack office will be re-located and the car park will be extended by 90 spaces. On Thursday 12 October, GS&WR Bury 2-2-2 No. 36 was temporarily re-located from it display location in the concourse to facilitate the work. Temporary track was laid and it was winched out of the concourse before being lifted by a crane.

On 2 October, work started on lifting and renewing track at Platforms 2 and 3. Platform 1 had been done earlier in September. By 26 October, a significant part of the wooden carriage shed had been removed. Works are expected to be completed by April 2007.

Connolly   In October, IÉ applied for planning permission to make improvements to concourse facilities, including removal of the eastern wall of the concourse and redundant road, enlarging the retail areas, installing new ‘glazed curtain walls’ at the eastern and southern elevations, replacing toilets with a larger facility, constructing a new passenger lounge adjacent to Platform 2 and a mezzanine floor above the toilets. Arch windows will be provided in the existing brick wall and new customer information systems will be installed.

Bus Éireann, a CIÉ subsidiary that competes with IÉ on many routes, is planning to build a second Busáras (bus station) on railway lands at Connolly station car park.

Gorey   IÉ is planning to add 150 car parking spaces.

Gormanston   IÉ has applied for planning permission to extend the car park to 200 spaces. Work includes new lighting and CCTV security cameras.

Heuston   Work on the new train shed roof was completed in November. New lighting has been installed and the platforms are now significantly brighter at night. Brickwork on the shed wall adjacent to the river Liffey has also been cleaned.

Phoenix Park    Construction work continues on this new station between Ashtown and Castlenock on the Maynooth line. Platform faces and a substantial retaining wall were nearly complete by December.

Newbridge   The car park is to be extended by a further 60 spaces to ease overcrowding and there are proposals to double the size of the car park from 300 spaces to 600 spaces by the end of 2007.

Agreement has also been reached between the Office of Public Works, the local soccer club, a local developer and IÉ to build a new pedestrian bridge over the railway. The cost of the footbridge will be in the region of €1.2m.

Possible New Station   Local councillors have been pressing for some time to re-open a station between Mullingar and Enfield . Campaigners refer to a 400% population growth in areas like Kinnegad in the past ten years. Re-opening Killucan or Hill of Down has been mentioned as a possibility. These stations are mentioned as essential parts of transport infrastructure in both the Westmeath and Meath County Development Plans. Both councils have now jointly commissioned a report ‘to determine likely rail traffic demand if the stations were reopened’ and to look at settlement patterns within the catchment areas of the stations as well as assessing the economic costs and benefits of opening the stations. A spokesperson for Meath County Council said: ‘Passenger preferences will be an important factor in comparing potential sites for the station. Other factors will be the quality of road access, land availability and likely building costs’.

Rathdrum   Thirty additional car parking spaces are to be added.

Thomastown   The station was temporarily closed from 23 October until 4 December to allow the platform to be raised, resurfaced and extended to 174m. Substitute buses were provided.

  The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 162, published February 2007.

Copyright © 2007 by Irish Railway Record Society Ltd.
Revised: February 18, 2007 .