A west Dublin train station that has been dormant since its construction at a cost of more than €6 million 15 years ago has finally opened, following a €3.8 million refurbishment.
Kishoge station, on the Kildare line between Clondalkin and Adamstown, was completed in 2009 and was intended to serve a new community at Clonburris, the next west Dublin suburb due to be constructed after Adamstown, built 20 years ago.
The station was mothballed when the property crash hit. And the first homes in the new suburb which is expected by the end of the decade to have a population of 23,000 — similar in size to the town of Newbridge — were built only last year.
The station will initially be served by 48 trains each way daily Monday to Friday, 19 outbound and 17 citybound on Saturdays, and seven outbound and eight citybound on Sundays. Journeys to Heuston will take 14 minutes.
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The line is due for a significant upgrade in the coming years as part of the Dart+Programme, with increased capacity and journey times of 10 minutes to Heuston once the electrification of the line is completed.
The creation of a high-density “eco-district” of up to 15,000 homes at Clonburris was proposed by South Dublin County Council in the mid-2000s and approved by An Bord Pleanála in 2008, with the new Kishoge station seen as crucial to the suburb’s sustainable development
Construction of the station was well under way by the time the Clonburris Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) — a fast-track planning scheme that allows the council to grant planning permission that cannot be appealed to An Bord Pleanála — was approved by the board in 2008
It was intended the station would be brought into operation to coincide with the phased completion of the new apartment blocks. However, while the station was finished in 2009, no construction had started on the residential scheme in advance of the property crash.
As the State emerged from the recession, the council decided to revise its plans for Clonburris, which remained as a large, undeveloped land bank of 265 hectares to the north and south of the rail line. A more modest, lower-density SDZ scheme of just over 8,400 homes was prepared by the council and approved by the board in 2019.
The first homes under the new scheme were completed last year and 1,000 homes are due to be completed each year up to 2030.
Irish Rail was due to open the Kishoge station in December 2022, but a spokesman said “extensive works” were needed to refurbish and upgrade the station. These would cost about €3.8 million, he said, more than half the original €6.35 million cost of the station.
The work included lift replacement, renewal or replacement of all mechanical, electrical fire and telecoms cables and equipment, internal and external wall works, replacement of flooring areas, damaged ramps and tactile tiling, paths and paving repairs, and the installation of up-to-date signage and station furniture.
Speaking at the opening of the station, Irish Rail chief executive Jim Meade said Kishoge had “taken a little longer than we would normally take building a station”.
“Overall it was impacted by the short term of the downturn but in hindsight, that was a relatively short time. Railway infrastructure is long-term, 100-year infrastructure, multigenerational infrastructure, and it’s important we continue to build out that infrastructure.”
Minister of State at the Department of Transport James Lawless said while there had been “few false starts and a few delays” in delivering the station “investment in public transport and capital infrastructure is never wasted it is always a good spend”.
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