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A ‘GHOST STATION’ on the Dublin to Cork line will lie idle unless Irish Rail is given €2 million to open it – but a review of the station is due this year.
The National Transport Authority confirmed to TheJournal.ie that a review of the station is due this year.
“Following the opening of the Phoenix Park Tunnel, the NTA plans to undertake a review regarding the opening of Kishoge Station.
“The review will be undertaken this year, once service and usage patterns have bedded down and the NTA is able to assess the impact of the opening of the Tunnel on rail services on the Kildare line.”
The Kishogue station lies between Clondalkin/Fonthill and Adamstown stations and was built in 2008 to serve a planned 1,000 homes in the Clonburris area. However, much of that development hasn’t happened so the NTA hasn’t deemed the project worth opening.
That means that it has remained unopened, but locals are keen to see it utilised. While 2,000 homes are planned for the area in the medium-term, the station is mentioned in the NTA’s Greater Dublin Area Plan for 2016-2035 as part of the service for south-west Dublin. It does not, however, mention when the station would be opened.
Local councillor William Lavelle says that Transport Minister Shane Ross needs to step in.
“Lucan is crippled by traffic congestion. It is therefore incredible, indeed scandalous, to think that this station, which is widely reported to have cost €6.35 million to build, continues to lie idle for nearly seven years, despite being located within a short walking distance of multiple Lucan housing estates.
“Kishogue is the last ‘ghost station’ left unopened in Dublin.”
Lavelle was angered that the station wasn’t opened at the same time as the Phoenix Park tunnel, which would have given locals access to both sides of Dublin city by rail.
Both Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority have claimed that funding is necessary for works to complete an access road and car-park, which Lavelle says would be the “most expensive tarmac job in history”.
Irish Rail says that the station will remain closed unless it gets €2 million from the NTA.
“The station was not opened at the time of construction, as expected development adjacent to the station – including the access road – had not materialised, and this situation remains unchanged.
“The station requires in the region of €2 million of capital expenditure to complete a car park, access road and other works to allow the station to open. Decisions on future capital programme will be made by the National Transport Authority, in the context of the Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy.”
The spokesperson added that there are no specific monthly costs for maintaining the site, but that it is checked every quarter to ensure lifts and fire detection systems are operational.
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I live up in Drogheda and one of the selling points that the estate agents pushed when we were buying was a second train station as the train line runs right at the back of where we live.
Never happened and it’s ridiculous because it’s badly needed. Trying to get over the other side of town in the morning is crazy and parking was ridiculous unless you were there before 7am.
They also need to reopen the Navan line
You must not live in Drogheda Emma. Where the proposed new station was to the current station is close to a 40 minute walk
@emma navan line will never open for passengers look what’s happening in bus eireann.
the second station in drogheda was never proposed to be on the navan line .
How much are they paying a consultant to tell them what to do ? Can’t they work it out themselves ?
Passenger numbers through Adamstown and Clondalkin are very small compared to Hazelhatch, Sallins and even Parkwest. There is no demand for this new station, even with the new grand canal service. Waste of money.
Partly because there is limited effort to get people onto the route, plus a train to Houston is not much good if you work in the city centre.
Irish Rail are cutting services are there on about opening a new station on the Dublin Cork line very good to all involved and to the big boy Shane Ross and the mighty Enda and his cronies that does NOT make sense to any one()
The aul English language is a tough one eh
This is ridiculous stuff. Better, more efficient public transport will help to solve a lot of the issues in this country, namely economic development too centred on Co Dublin as well as the roots of the housing crisis.
Better public transport infrastructure will mean people won’t need to live so close to Dublin and the overall commuter belt will grow but in general, economic development will spread more evenly within that zone and congestion won;t be such an issue at one end of it, as is the case nowadays
Should be more stations everywhere, get there fingers out of their holes, invest in some sort of future for the country!
Plenty of stations/lines outside Dublin require reopening.
If the government is serious about getting cars off the road they need to invest in public transport.
Youghal to Midleton could badly do with being reinstated. Irish rail however want to permanently close it. Monkeys must be working for the NTA
@emma drogheda has no change of a second station and any1 who bought a house believing this was worse. They won’t open the station in dunleer 10mins further north which would ease alot of droghedas never mind build a new station. Public transport In Ireland is clearly dead in the water. Privatise everything with the likes of micheal o’leary at the helm and it won’t be long turnin around.
@Colin Tinnelly: There should be a park and ride situation at many of the stations – there is no point in trying to encourage people to go on public transport and shove up the car park prices and the train trip prices. There should be a national strategy at Ministerial level to get people on public transport. The principal share holder of CIE does not have a strategy to manage public transport.
if this was on the southside bloody sure it would have been open, they have more transport links then any other part of the city yet, the main roads from wicklow through to the city centre are still clogged up, and now they are getting a cycle way all the way into the city.
Lucan is southside
@Padraig Chambers: westside
There is a ghost station between Carrickmines and loughlinstown.
have your say