At long last!
Sorry for the delay.
Wednesday 6 July
Today I planned to explore the Republic’s railways for the first time ever. Obviously to do this from the North I needed to get on an Enterprise train, which I did: the 0831 from Portadown to Dublin. As I had been told to expect, it was very busy. I didn’t do my usual of wandering up and down the train until I found something, or going to the door where no-one was trying to board, and as such just settled for an airline style seat on the left. We got going through the East Armagh countryside, with the stations at Scarva and Poyntzpass, served by only a couple of stopping trains a day between Belfast and Newry, the only highlights. After the latter, the line cuts ever-so-briefly into neighbouring County Down, for what must be little more than half a mile. Yet more rural emptiness followed as we kept close to County Armagh’s eastern border, before stopping at the dull station at Newry, a new city rocked by the Troubles, though the station is quite a way from the place. From what I can gather it has been resited and rebuilt ever so slightly in recent years, though I can find much more information than that!
The train by this point was almost at full seating capacity, maybe proof that improved times and services along this line would be keenly-welcomed. We got talking to a man near us, who recalled the tales his father had told him about the railways many years ago, as well as a general chat about modern railways, and our destination city. We soon crossed over the border into the Republic, and the line headed South West to the first town (and stop) in the country – Dundalk (or Dundalk Clarke to hard-core Nationalists). Quite a large and impressive building sits in the middle of the station’s island platform, which is served by the majority of Enterprises, as well as some slower services into Dublin and beyond. I wish I could tell you how many boarded / alighted here, but I didn't take note. We carried on through County Louth, which as far as I know is the smallest county in the island of Ireland, as we passed the disused halt at Dunleer, and a while later over the River Boyne (scene of certain 1690 events that I’m sure many historians and Irishmen / Ulstermen know well) and through the station at Drogheda MacBride (pronounced Dro-da). This is one of only two trains a day not to call at the station - the other being the Enterprise I returned on in the evening. I didn’t get a chance to observe the area south-west of the station, the site of the old line into Navan and the rest of mid-County Meath, but the tracks and platforms survive, although the latter are disused. The lines survives for freight beyond Navan, but it does look likely to reopen in future for passenger use. We left County Louth and hit the very eastern edge of County Meath, following the quite beautiful coastline down Laytown, and into County Dublin. We cut inland here, and passed through many intermediate halts, as well as the slightly larger station at Howth Jn (where the Howth line joins strangely enough), before rolling through Dublin’s north suburbs, and over Ireland’s railway spaghetti junction, where lines from all four compass points meet, into the station at Connolly. Here we, and obviously everyone else, detrained.
As I’m writing this in mid-late December and all this happened at the start of July, I have forgotten some detail, such as whether I had my ticket checked on the train or indeed leaving Connolly. I do however seem to think that I had it checked before getting onto the platform at Portadown. Anyway, we had arrived. My first impression of Connolly was that it was quite small, and for the second-busiest station in Ireland it was: the bay platforms (and accompanying trainshed) backed onto a glass and steel building, which housed the concourse, a few shops and a booking office, and not much more. I was then left by the two people I was on holiday with, who went to do all the usual boring tourist stuff – look at the Jail, the city centre, and the other exceptionally dull things normal people do. I was given twenty Euros to see me through the day, of which a few were spent on first ticket – a Day Return to Dun Laoghaire. I haven’t ever bothered to compare it distance-price for a similar journey over here, but to be honest I would have paid anything to get out and about down there. I bought it from one of a couple of TVMs next to the booking office, and it came like I assume all standard tickets over there are – slightly smaller than ours, and yellow. Armed with my brand new ticket, I set off for the suburban platforms on the west side of the bays, accessed by walking down the westernmost bay (platform 4) and through a quite sizeable gap in the trainshed wall, where I think you then passed through a gateline (though I showed mine to the staff staffing it), the n either took the subway for platforms 6 and 7 (generally northbound only), or walked a short distance to platform 5 (generally southbound trains). I looked for my train – the 1025 to Greystones – and headed for platform 5, which it was advertised from, before I was informed by announcements and the electronic screens that it had been rerouted to platform 7. I stood for a few minutes on platform 7 before it pulled in, already a few minutes late, boarded a relatively quiet leading vehicle of a Class 81xx / 83xx setup, and waited for us to set off, which we eventually did, a good few minutes down. The viaduct over the Liffey followed, as did Tara St, Pearse and Lansdowne Rd stations, to name but a few. It remained relatively quiet and peaceful until Dun Laoghaire, with few using the intermediate stations out of the city. The journey, following the east coast just as the line north of the Capital did, was slightly ruined by a fly, who did what every fly does – making themselves as annoying as is humanly possible to imagine, hence he ended up being splattered with a copy of a car magazine I found lying about after ten minutes of sheer annoyance.
Anyway, I had arrived in Dun Laoghaire – better known as Kingstown before 1923. The station there, as with many larger ones in the republic, carries a suffix – in this case Mallin, and is enclosed by two walls, over which the station building is situated. I showed my ticket to the gateline crew, who let me keep it, and had a look around the building, which took about 20 seconds: it was bare to say the least, a booking office and a bench being the only notable features. At the window of the booking office an American male, who I think the station staff knew quite well, was arguing with the clerk about the cost of a ticket, before paying up, chatting to the gateline crew and walking down to the northbound platform shouting out a list of states that constitutes the New England area of the USA. I fed my return portion of my ticket into the gate, which returned it yet kept quite a firm hold of it, so much so it smudged the ink on it. Not bothered by this relatively minor issue, I followed the American down the stairs, and waited quite a distance away from him, for the next train to Dublin. Trains run every 15 minutes or so in each direction, and I had a 12 minute wait for a Class 86xx / 85xx set to take me back to Dublin. I alighted at Pearse, a very impressive station, and the busiest in Ireland, with a beautiful overall roof and fine buildings to each side. It was undergoing refurbishment when I was there, so most of the booking office and subway was covered in scaffolding and posters advertising the improvements, which were nothing too different from the standard refurbishment on this side of the Irish Sea: better lighting, repainting, deep clean, all the usual stuff. I went back to the platform and waited for the next train north to Tara St. This is a much smaller, yet still busy station just south of the Liffey, and is one of those city centre stations that are very busy but with few passenger facilities, maybe a bit like Deansgate in Manchester. I arrived on an xx86 / xx85 set and left on the next train (just as I had done at Pearse), which was an 81xx / 83 xx set up, like I had used on my southbound journey.
I arrived back into Connolly and didn’t really know where to go – should I stay on the DART network (like I had done for the past hour plus), and head to Howth, or should I go across central Dublin to see the city’s other main station, Hesuton? In the end I decided on the latter, and used the LUAS tram system to take me there. Connolly LUAS station lies at the front of the IE station, but significantly below it – I believe they had to remove the old station front / approach road to build it. I bought my ticket to Hueston – a City Centre Zone Single (which was quite lucky as both stations are the border of it), and jumped on the tram. It was busy, but everyone had a seat – mine was, in true trackbasher style, right-hand facing, furthest forwards in this case. We set off down through the city centre, calling at Abbey Street and Smithfield LUAS stations, amongst others, all of which were quite well-used I should add, before crossing the Liffey (again!), and stopping directly in front of Heuston station. I walked into the front entrance, and noted the many shops situated on the concourse, a version of Boots I think, as well as a fast-food restaurant whose names escapes me. Anyway, I wondered around the concourse for a while, collected what felt like several tonnes of timetables and leaflets from the information desk, took in the live departures, checked what ticket prices were like from the TVMs, and, most importantly, had lunch. The fast-food restaurant turned out to be like a nice blend of McDonalds and Burger King, and wasn’t too expensive for a place to eat in a capital city. After finishing, my attention turned to what I could do next, and it was quite lucky that a local stopper to Kildare, which would have been my only journey opportunity, was the next train departing, leaving from platform 1 in approximately 20 minutes. I worked out that I could get out to the first station only (Cherry West & Park Orchard), so I bought my ticket from the TVM, before taking more of a wander around this truly excellent station. I discovered the booking office and eastern entrance – it is one of the finest rooms I have ever set foot in on a railway station. I walked around it a bit, admiring the frankly stunning internal architecture, before taking a couple of photos. That was when a member of station staff came up behind me and I think asked me not to take photos inside the station buildings, though to this day I don’t have a clue what he actually said in his thick and quick-speaking Irish accent. Once again not bothered by this minor problem, I took a few more photos of the platforms (quite subtly), and boarded the Class 22xxx sat in the platform, enjoyed the quietness (there were three other people in my coach – the leading one, right-hand facing naturally), took in the constant barrage of Irish Gaelic automatic announcements, which were then instantly repeated in English, and eventually we set off. The line between Heuston and somewhere quiet west of Dublin near Kildare whose names escapes me is four-track, improved from the two-track layout present just a few years ago, though I have to admit I don’t know why – it sees roughly 3-4tp2h in each direction, generally one all stations to Kildare, one non-stop (to Limerick), and 1-2 calling at Kildare at the most. Anyway, I enjoyed my 7 minute journey, and alighted at Park West, along with a couple of others. The station, as with many others out to Kildare, has been totally rebuilt with the Kildare Line Improvements Programme, which includes the four-tracking and more local trains. The four platforms were silent, except for those from my train, and looked like they had never been touched by humans, despite being open for a couple of years now. The station building was massive, and empty too. The gateline think was open, or gave me my ticket back, but I suspect the latter as I think someone told the booking clerk that the gates were jamming. I had only a few minutes before my train back, so never really got a good chance to look around, but from what I saw the improvements have been rather extravagant and slightly over-the-top. I got down to the platform just seconds before my train rolled in: I was the only one that boarded (I don’t think anyone alighted), and once more was one of only three in my coach. We rolled into Heuston a few minutes later, and, after giving myself one last look around this beautiful station, almost a cross-between of Connolly and Pearse, I headed back to the LUAS station.
I reached the (nearer) northbound platform, for trams back up to Connolly and the Docklands, just as a service had left, and witnessed two members of the security services talking to a woman swearing and shouting in what sounded like Spanish / Portuguese. I think she had been caught for fare evasion and wasn’t paying up, so tried to board the next tram (heading for Connolly, I wanted a The Point tram), but was dragged off by the men. She then went on to have a massive hissy fit at the two men, swore at everyone around her, threw her shoe at one of the guards and went off in a huff. After that slightly unusual event, my tram pulled in, and I boarded, got a seat and enjoyed the ride through the city. LUAS trams, as far as I can tell, get no priority over traffic, so wait at traffic lights like everyone else, resulting in a slow journey in the centre. If you are a driver on them, I assume it must send you crazy after a while. Anyway, I got off at Spencer Dock, advertised as being for the relatively new Docklands IE station, and set about trying to find it. I got a bit lost down the roads leading to the station, and ended up having to come back to the LUAS station and try again, this time walking back towards the river, then down to the station. The station was silent – not a soul was about: the booking office was shut, the gateline open, no-one was on the platform, and no-one was in the station building. Using this time to take some photos, it made me wonder whether IE and the Irish Government have been too ambitious with the recent trend of rail improvements, we have seen that Western Corridor numbers a way lower than expected, and I was stood for ten minutes on a new city centre terminus in the middle of the day without seeing a single living being. I never bothered to check if the train in the platform had people onboard, but if it was empty it wouldn’t have surprised me. I walked back along the river up to the main road (and tram route), and walked back along towards Connolly station, meeting up with the two people I had come down with, who had experienced the joys of the Prison, Zoo and tourist buses. We had out tickets checked, and were told to wait in the waiting room for Enterprise trains, where you are kept until the arriving train has been emptied of passengers and cleaned etc. Being relatively close to the front of the queue we managed to get a table to ourselves on the way back (right-hand facing of course!), but the train filled up well. Many got off at Dundalk (we were non-stop at Drogheda), as they did at Newry, and numbers thinned out further judging by how many alighted along with ourselves at Portadown, at the end of what was an absolutely spectacular day.
I will add just a couple of brief notes to this:
- We bought our tickets for the Enterprise in advance over the Internet, obtaining what I think are the cheapest tickets possible – £17.50 return each. Although you are attached to a service you get not seat reservation, maybe we could try adopting that over here, it worked quite nicely over there!
- The line between Newry and Dundalk is stunning, beautiful hills to the west, rolling hills and some coast to the east. If you ever find yourself out that way, try and get it done, it is a little gem!
- Several key stations had their suffixes added / changed in 1966 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising. Surnames of key figures involved were used in lieu of traditional names, hence today we have Bray Daly, Waterford Plunklett and Cork Kent, to name but a few.
