For Aisling Ronayne the opening of Irish Rail’s new Dart station at Woodbrook in south Dublin on Sunday is to be a godsend.
As one of the residents of the new Woodbrook housing development located between Bray and Shankill, she is within shouting distance of the Dart line. However, it is too far to walk to either Bray or Shankill stations, and parking at these stations for cars is limited.
Her route to work in Dublin involves driving via the M11 and the M50 to the Luas in Carrickmines. “You can park there for €3 a day,” she said.
Ms Roynane lives with her infant son and her husband, who has been working remotely from home. “It is not ideal, but we make it work,” she said of the family’s commuter arrangements.
What is difficult, she says, is “the €70 taxi fare from Dublin” that has to be added to the bill for a night out in the city.
“It will be a whole lot better when the [Woodbrook] station opens,” she said. “My husband is being asked to work back in the office, he works in Dún Laoghaire, and we will be able to get the Dart at Woodbrook to work and we can use it for the occasional night out in town.”
When The Irish Times met Ms Ronayne on Thursday morning she was pushing her son in a stroller, on Woodbrook Avenue, a road through her estate to the Dart line. It is a new road and on Thursday workers were busy getting the last section finished to link up with the station. “I hope it is done for Sunday,” she said.
Woodbrook is a large development with many of the terraced, three-storey homes recently completed and awaiting occupants. Construction is continuing on part of the estate south of Shanganagh cemetery and much of this is around the railway, putting the station out of sight and reach.
“The new station is behind Shanganagh cemetery,” said Oliver Plunkett who was walking with his sister Marie and dog Rue. “It is hard to find. But if you go up to the railway line just past the cemetery you can look down the track to it,” said Oliver.
The brother and sister said they were hoping to see where the access route to the station would be. “We are trying to find it,” said Marie.
Irish Rail, which is to open the station on Sunday, said the road through Woodbrook estate will be completed, and a pedestrian path from beside Shanganagh cemetery is to be put in place by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council “but it is not there yet”.
From Sunday, Woodbrook will become the 147th station on the rail network. The new station is some 250 metres north of the former Woodbrook halt, which served the area from 1910 to 1960. Service frequency is to be about every 10 minutes in each direction on weekdays. The journey to Dublin city centre will be about 40 minutes.
The station consists of two 174m-long platforms with associated passenger shelters, seating, lighting, CCTV, customer information, bicycle parking and ticketing facilities, Irish Rail said. Access to the southbound platform is via a new pedestrian bridge with ramped and stepped access.
Dart services will begin serving Woodbrook Station in advance of the official opening at 11.45am by Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien and the cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Jim Gildea.
To mark the official opening, there will be a family fun day with entertainment for children and adults at the station. Irish Rail said as parking at Woodbrook will be limited, visitors are being asked to take the train to the events.