Lartigue Monorail, Ireland

[shredder1]

Hi

I'm trying to get some information about the Lartigue museum, as I'm over there Interrailing from the end of this month.

I've emailed them and tried customer service contacts, but getting no responses, I'd like to ask is the railway/museum still operating and how do you access it by public transport, the nearest railway station perhaps?

https://www.lartiguemonorail.com/

 

[chrisjo]

Id like to ask is the railway/museum still operating

There are very recent reviews on TripAdvisor.

 

[D6130]

Hi

Im trying to get some information about the Lartigue museum as Im over there Interrailing from the end of this month, Ive emailed them and tried customer service contacts, but getting no responses, Id like to ask is the railway/museum still operating and how do you access it by public transport, the nearest railway station perhaps?
https://www.lartiguemonorail.com/

I went a couple of weeks ago and it was definitely operating from 13 30 onwards. I stayed overnight in Mallow - at the Hibernian Hotel in the main street, 15 minutes walk from the station - and caught the 09 26 train to Tralee on the Wednesday morning. After the famous double-reversal at Killarney, this is due to arrive in Tralee at 10 58 with a +2 connection into the 11 00 route 13 Expressway bus to Limerick. The train usually arrives 2-3 minutes early....and if you position yourself at the very front door of the train and go straight out of the side gate of the station and across the car park to the bus station, you should make the bus OK.

Alight from the bus in the main square in Listowel at about 11 30 and there are several nice cafes where you can have an early lunch, before the 15 minutes walk to the old station, beyond which you will find the Lartigue monorail museum and demonstration track in and outside of the former goods shed. The volunteers who run it are extremely welcoming and knowledgeable....but fairly elderly and perhaps not the most computer literate?

If you spend an hour and ten minutes there - including the short ride - you could walk back into town and catch the 15 00 bus (which was 22 minutes late due to traffic and roadworks) - from the same stop where you alighted - back into Tralee for the 17 05 train back to Mallow and Cork, with a connection at Mallow for Dublin. Alternatively, you could take a later bus from Listowel to Limerick and continue your rail journey from there.

I've tried to upload a couple of videos, but I'm afraid the files are too large. However it's very well worth making the journey to visit a lovely reconstruction of one of the world's most unusual and eccentric railways!

 

[Beebman]

The best video on the monorail I can remember seeing was posted on the excellent Tim Traveller channel back in 2019:

Monorail. MONORAIL. The word feels almost synonymous with futuristic metropolitan travel. So the small Irish market town of Listowel, which is neither futuristic, nor a metropolis, seems like an unlikely birthplace for such a modern mode of transport. And yet...

As well as covering the history of the line the video shows how it was operating the time of filming. I don't know how much (if it all) it's changed since then but hopefully the video is interesting and useful. (For me sadly the line is one of too many things on my 'to do' list that I never get around to doing.)

 

[AdamWW]

As well as covering the history of the line the video shows how it was operating the time of filming. I don't know how much (if it all) it's changed since then but hopefully the video is interesting and useful. (For me sadly the line is one of too many things on my 'to do' list that I never get around to doing.)

Better I think to have more interesting things to do than time to do them in, than the other way round.

 

[berneyarms]

I went a couple of weeks ago and it was definitely operating from 13 30 onwards. I stayed overnight in Mallow - at the Hibernian Hotel in the main street, 15 minutes walk from the station - and caught the 09 26 train to Tralee on the Wednesday morning. After the famous double-reversal at Killarney, this is due to arrive in Tralee at 10 58 with a +2 connection into the 11 00 route 13 Expressway bus to Limerick. The train usually arrives 2-3 minutes early....and if you position yourself at the very front door of the train and go straight out of the side gate of the station and across the car park to the bus station, you should make the bus OK.

Alight from the bus in the main square in Listowel at about 11 30 and there are several nice cafes where you can have an early lunch, before the 15 minutes walk to the old station, beyond which you will find the Lartigue monorail museum and demonstration track in and outside of the former goods shed. The volunteers who run it are extremely welcoming and knowledgeable....but fairly elderly and perhaps not the most computer literate?

If you spend an hour and ten minutes there - including the short ride - you could walk back into town and catch the 15 00 bus (which was 22 minutes late due to traffic and roadworks) - from the same stop where you alighted - back into Tralee for the 17 05 train back to Mallow and Cork, with a connection at Mallow for Dublin. Alternatively, you could take a later bus from Listowel to Limerick and continue your rail journey from there.

I've tried to upload a couple of videos, but I'm afraid the files are too large. However it's very well worth making the journey to visit a lovely reconstruction of one of the world's most unusual and eccentric railways!

The Bus Éireann PSO route 272 operates from Tralee Bus Station at 12:05 to The Square in Listowel arriving at 12:40 and would be substantially cheaper than the Expressway route 13.

There is a return 272 at 16:22 arriving back to Tralee Bus Station at 17:07.

The fare on the 272 is €5.32 each way using a LEAP card or the TFI GO app. This represents a 30% discount on cash fares.

 

[shredder1]

I went a couple of weeks ago and it was definitely operating from 13 30 onwards. I stayed overnight in Mallow - at the Hibernian Hotel in the main street, 15 minutes walk from the station - and caught the 09 26 train to Tralee on the Wednesday morning. After the famous double-reversal at Killarney, this is due to arrive in Tralee at 10 58 with a +2 connection into the 11 00 route 13 Expressway bus to Limerick. The train usually arrives 2-3 minutes early....and if you position yourself at the very front door of the train and go straight out of the side gate of the station and across the car park to the bus station, you should make the bus OK.

Alight from the bus in the main square in Listowel at about 11 30 and there are several nice cafes where you can have an early lunch, before the 15 minutes walk to the old station, beyond which you will find the Lartigue monorail museum and demonstration track in and outside of the former goods shed. The volunteers who run it are extremely welcoming and knowledgeable....but fairly elderly and perhaps not the most computer literate?

If you spend an hour and ten minutes there - including the short ride - you could walk back into town and catch the 15 00 bus (which was 22 minutes late due to traffic and roadworks) - from the same stop where you alighted - back into Tralee for the 17 05 train back to Mallow and Cork, with a connection at Mallow for Dublin. Alternatively, you could take a later bus from Listowel to Limerick and continue your rail journey from there.

I've tried to upload a couple of videos, but I'm afraid the files are too large. However it's very well worth making the journey to visit a lovely reconstruction of one of the world's most unusual and eccentric railways!

Thats fantastic information, thank you so much for that

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Jul 2026 ==

The best video on the monorail I can remember seeing was posted on the excellent Tim Traveller channel back in 2019:

As well as covering the history of the line the video shows how it was operating the time of filming. I don't know how much (if it all) it's changed since then but hopefully the video is interesting and useful. (For me sadly the line is one of too many things on my 'to do' list that I never get around to doing.)

Marvelous, thank you so much

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Jul 2026 ==

The Bus Éireann PSO route 272 operates from Tralee Bus Station at 12:05 to The Square in Listowel arriving at 12:40 and would be substantially cheaper than the Expressway route 13.

There is a return 272 at 16:22 arriving back to Tralee Bus Station at 17:07.

The fare on the 272 is €5.32 each way using a LEAP card or the TFI GO app. This represents a 30% discount on cash fares.

Great stuff, thank you