Iron Road Aaron

One day, Irish Rail will get things right. Until then, we get things like this. Let’s open a station a mile away from anywhere and say it is investment in the railway. To hell with the fact that it is 30 years after Belfast did something similar and over 10 years after they realised that they were wrong, here in Ireland, we have to learn by making the same mistake, or more correctly, not learn.

Bad enough that Docklands Station is in the middle of some of the scummiest areas of Dublin City, this was a station deliberately built to shaft the Maynooth Line. Despite having land available to the east of the station, by building the station where they did, it is only accessible by trains on the Maynooth Line. If the station had been moved to the east (marked orange on the map above), not only would Maynooth Line trains be able to use the station, so would Drogheda/Dundalk services and Kildare Line services routed through the Phoenix Park Tunnel. After all, if this station is such a wonderful addition to the rail network, why not maximise the number of services that can access it.

But then, the Maynooth Line has always been the unwanted little bastard of the Irish Rail family. Instructed to initiate the service by then Transport Minister, Albert Reynolds, TD., CIE/IR have always treated the line badly compared to the other routes into Dublin. Left with the oldest rolling stock (even to this day, the Maynooth line gets 2800s where Drogheda and even the Kildare line have moved onto 29000s), a single line section until the start of this century (something that I personally lobbied against - i.e., in favour of the redoubling) and restricted length platforms for longer than the Drogheda Line, the final kick administered by the State to this line is Docklands Station.

Map of location of Docklands Station

2009 Update: With the new IR timetable for 2009, services to/from Docklands Station have been severly curtailed. Why was this station built in the first place? Has anyone been sacked for it?