Kilcoole Station

[Mark Gleeson]

Good news finally, a ticket machine and leap card equipment is to be installed.

This closes out a fare evasion loophole and provides Kilcoole commuters access to cheaper leap card fares

No date yet, but its on the program list

[Thomas Ralph]

You can already get leap fares of a fashion by just touching at the Dublin end, as to everywhere other than Greystones it's the maximum fare.

[Mark Gleeson]

You do hit some problems if you don't tag off as you might get stung with a double hit on the way back

[Traincustomer]

In recent weeks I travelled from Dublin to Kilcoole one Saturday to visit someone (using a single ticket and the evening Rosslare train as that's the only southbound service stopping there on Saturdays and there's nothing back on Sundays). I was one of three passengers alighting from the train (didn't know the other two passengers).

The person I was visiting collected me by car but was delayed in Kilcoole village en route to the station. I had a wait of ten to fifteen minutes. This didn't bother me but it was a very showery evening and it is pure luck I wasn't caught in a torrential downpour.

Point of this account - had the heavens opened there was absolutely nowhere that I could have taken shelter.

There's a portacabin type room between the platform ramp and the station gate (entrance/exit) - whether this is just for staff who may be working on the line from time to time/for stores or supplies or whether it is sometimes open to rail passengers I don't know. It wasn't open anyway.

Now the car park and platform surface at the station are perfectly ok and I understand from the IÉ website that a ticket vending machine (and presumably a Leap Card pole) will be available around the middle of this month. All very good but surely a shelter of some description (doesn't matter what it looks like) can be provided to make the passenger experience of using the station meet basic satisfaction/needs levels?

[JamesK]

I used to use Kilcoole station on a regular basis to travel to and from Wicklow on the late morning train that ran to Arklow or Gorey. At that time (about three years ago), a basic shelter with a seat was provided on the right hand side just beyond the swing gate that allows access to the platform i.e. adjacent to the portacabin type structure to which you refer. For reasons unknown to me this basic shelter was removed so now, as you point out, there is no shelter for passengers or even a seat. I have never seen the portacabin type structure to which you refer open and to the best of my knowledge, it has never been available for use by waiting passengers.

Alas, it is not now possible to catch a southbound train at Kilcoole and then return there later in the day. Thus a poor service has become no service at all!

[Traincustomer]

Interesting. Was it a metal box type shelter or a bus shelter type with windows/panels?

I think that train to Arklow was withdrawn from the introduction of the September 2011 timetable. Hopefully - if at any point in the future an additional train is introduced on the line south of Greystones - it can stop at Kilcoole.

A shelter at a station - however basic or primitive the structure - is a must at every station given our typical weather. It is a perfectly reasonable basic expectation. The only station in my view that can "get away" without a shelter is Manulla Junction as it's a transfer station with no public access and passengers can wait onboard the train from Ballina if the weather is bad/the mainline train is not there.

[JamesK]

In response to your query, the shelter was a basic metal box type structure (no glass) with seating inside for about four passengers. The concrete foundations are still visible. I can only conclude that its sudden demolition had something to do with planning issues.

The withdrawal of the late morning train southbound and the northbound return service in the afternoon was quite a loss, especially as there is no parallel bus service that one can use to get to Wicklow and beyond.

[Traincustomer]

Thanks JamesK. In my view something which could at least be considered is for the 09.40 Connolly to Rosslare Harbour and 12.55 return (both Mondays-Saturdays inclusive) to serve Kilcoole.

The 09.40 train doesn’t pass any scheduled train south of Greystones and in my experience if it’s a few minutes late it often regains these by the time it reaches the Rosslare stations. This would give a southbound service from Kilcoole at 10.31.

On the return journey it would serve Kilcoole about 14.51 and probably just about get through the “eye of the needle” that is the Greystones-Bray section in time. The preceding DART at 14.55 ex Bray to Howth would be further ahead than at present so the train should be able to travel a bit faster and regain existing times by the time it reaches Pearse station.

Were these trains to stop it would give, for example, around three and a half hours in Wicklow and a little under three hours in Arklow.

As well as permitting southbound travel from Kilcoole to the major settlements in the county and other towns along the line, it would give a morning service from the city and suburbs to Kilcoole and a late-afternoon service into the city and suburbs which for instance would allow travel into Dun Laoghaire and the city centre for a few hours (could return on one of the evening trains). Incidentally the visitor attraction of Glenroe Farm is not very far from the station as the crow flies but presumably there is no shorter walking route from the station to there other than going through Kilcoole.

Even if it was possible to provide a limited bus service between Kilcoole and Newtownmountkennedy to connect with the Bus Éireann route 133 to Wicklow the cost of doing so would far outweigh the essentially negligible costs of stopping one train each way at Kilcoole. Also buses to/from Kilcoole generally don’t coincide with the times of trains to/from Wicklow at Greystones (a wait of the best part of an hour is usually needed) and besides this would make the journey significantly longer. Journey planners give a hypothetical/unrealistic “option” from Kilcoole to Wicklow entailing a circuitous journey via Greystones and Newtownmountkennedy with a journey time of at least 1 hour 15 minutes up to nearly two hours and the use of at least two and sometimes three separate buses.

Given the rail journey is ten minutes (say half an hour or so if a possible walk at either end is included) the existing train service is the best and most cost effective way to provide public transport connectivity between Kilcoole and Wicklow (and other places along the line).

[KSW]

If I'm honest what the line needs is a complete new timetable pattern the current timetable pattern has been in place for a lot of years and they do not suit most people and especially the cost of a ticket compared to Bus Eireann/Private bus companies. In this day and age of 2014 I personally think the cost of a open return ticket from Gorey to City Centre @27.80 vs €19.50 example Wexford bus for much more services and a much faster journey time. How do Iarnrod Eireann expect to gain with only three services from Gorey to Dublin 08.20,14.02,19.02 it doesn't make sense to me. Im not including the 5.55 & 6.45 services. A late morning and afternoon service. The length of time for the journey,the cost, less services!! Iarnrod Eireann could easily reduce the time on this line so easily I've experienced this so many times. It's just Greystones to Connolly which needs to be looked at,I'm not getting technical.
Kilcoole did have that 11.40 Connolly Gorey and 14.50 Gorey Connolly and on to Maybooth before why have these ceased. No demand for passengers why doesn't IE look into it. Sorry to drag on it's bizarre to me!!

[JamesK]

In response to Traincustomer, when comments were requested by IrishRail at the draft timetable stage and prior to the withdrawal of the midday Connolly to Arklow train and its return over two years ago, a suggestion was made that the 0940 ex Connolly and the 1255 ex Rosslare Europort stop at Kilcoole in order to provide a replacement for the stops that were being withdrawn on the ground that no straightforward public transport alternative was available for southbound journeys and their return. The company chose not to accede to this suggestion.

[berneyarms]

Originally Posted by KSW

If I'm honest what the line needs is a complete new timetable pattern the current timetable pattern has been in place for a lot of years and they do not suit most people and especially the cost of a ticket compared to Bus Eireann/Private bus companies. In this day and age of 2014 I personally think the cost of a open return ticket from Gorey to City Centre @27.80 vs €19.50 example Wexford bus for much more services and a much faster journey time. How do Iarnrod Eireann expect to gain with only three services from Gorey to Dublin 08.20,14.02,19.02 it doesn't make sense to me. Im not including the 5.55 & 6.45 services. A late morning and afternoon service. The length of time for the journey,the cost, less services!! Iarnrod Eireann could easily reduce the time on this line so easily I've experienced this so many times. It's just Greystones to Connolly which needs to be looked at,I'm not getting technical.
Kilcoole did have that 11.40 Connolly Gorey and 14.50 Gorey Connolly and on to Maybooth before why have these ceased. No demand for passengers why doesn't IE look into it. Sorry to drag on it's bizarre to me!!

The problem is that with the clockface 15 minute DART service, and in particular the half-hourly Greystones DART service it isn't possible to speed up the Rosslare services between Greystones and Connolly - the infrastructure just doesn't support it.

[JamesK]

A little over two years after the first post on this thread, the promised ticket machine and leap card equipment has still not been installed at this station.

[Traincustomer]

there are currently no plans to install a ticket machine due to the low numbers of passengers travelling from Kilcoole.

IÉ's own words from a response to a customer on Twitter in recent days.

A new gate (replacing an old dilapidated turnstile type gate) permitting access for customers with impaired mobility was provided at the station in recent months.

Who decided to remove Kilcoole from the aforementioned program list? IÉ, the NTA, both?

[Eddie]

Had been meaning for ages to walk on the beach from Greystones to Wicklow but finally managed to get out to do the Newcastle to Kilcoole leg recently.

When I got to Kilcoole, I thought how great it would be to get the train back.

Whilst I knew only 4-5 weekday trains go through here each day, I was completely bemused that that only half of these actually stop.

Don't know if any of you saw Paul Merton's C4 Request Stop 3 part programme in the summer where he traverses the length and breadth of the UK, getting on and off at stations where you have to request to the guard / conductor to get on or off, but I would have thought this station would be ideal for this. The infrastucture is there (clearly except the Leap card machine from earlier posts). Why not make use of it? What difference is slowing / stopping for an extra minute going to make to a couple of trains a day? I passed quite a few walkers that morning, and none of them could have come by train. How many people each day walk Bray to Greystones, which is only possible since a regular Dart was introduced to Greystones.

Perhaps it's because they can't guarantee a guard being on the train. If they can't, for an extra couple of trains a day, just stop there.

Would have been great to have got on the train here, but had to get the bus back instead. If I lived here I would find it completely frustrating that a train service existed but was so unnecessarily limited.

Years ago I wrote about my disbelief that Avoca didn't have a station (turned out there was one but it had closed years ago). Without millions being spent on this line it's never going to be able to compete with the road times, but for a lot less the Rosslare line could tap into a tourist market in a way which many other lines can't.

[Traincustomer]

In terms of Kilcoole, Mr Reville said that he didn't envisage a problem providing a shelter there and said he would look at the feasibility of trains passing through Kilcoole stopping there more often.

'I think we can look positively on it as long as it doesn't disrupt the timetable too much.'

Mr Reville said that he would be in favour of extra bike spaces but said that the station is quite narrow.

In respect of a station at Avoca, Mr Reville said that it wasn't on the cards at the moment, adding it wasn't included in any capital programme at the moment.

He also told Cllr Walsh that the fares are set by the National Transport Authority and Iarnród Éireann can't regulate them.

In respect of terminating the service before Rosslare, Mr Reville said that it was a suggestion contained in the rail review.

Extract from source:
http://www.independent.ie/regionals/...-35848203.html

[Eddie]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Good news finally, a ticket machine and leap card equipment is to be installed.

This closes out a fare evasion loophole and provides Kilcoole commuters access to cheaper leap card fares

No date yet, but its on the program list

Just checking that Kilcoole had a leap card reader installed? Might need to use the station in the next while.

[Underground]

Originally Posted by Eddie

Just checking that Kilcoole had a leap card reader installed? Might need to use the station in the next while.

http://www.irishrail.ie/travel-information/kilcoole

Doesn't look like it.

[Jamie2k9]

Originally Posted by Underground

http://www.irishrail.ie/travel-information/kilcoole

Doesn't look like it.

There website is out of date. It also says Thomastown has no TMV when it has for well over a year.

[ACustomer]

Kilcoole is, let's face it, a backwater. What about the lack of TVM and Train displays at Broombridge? Does Irish Rail not realise that Broombridge is no longer a semi burned-out wreck but a major connecting point?

[berneyarms]

Originally Posted by ACustomer

Kilcoole is, let's face it, a backwater. What about the lack of TVM and Train displays at Broombridge? Does Irish Rail not realise that Broombridge is no longer a semi burned-out wreck but a major connecting point?

I think you forget that the NTA is responsible for all capital funding now - perhaps ask them?