Broadstone Station – Rebirth and Custody Battle

Greater Dublin transport authority with power needed here to bang heads, they dont have to look any further than London to see what can be done with an old station

Isn’t using it for commuter rail contrary to transport 21? since it was intended to have Navan to Greystones service?

ah jaysus cgcsb, you can’t expect govt agencies to follow govt strategy!!!

@cgcsb wrote:

Isn’t using it for commuter rail contrary to transport 21? since it was intended to have Navan to Greystones service?

That is the Maynooth DART. The actual terminating of the Navan trains was alway very vague with Docklands mentioned half-heartedly.

If I was to make a cynical guess, I would reckon that CIE see the land bank around Docklands Stations are being far more valuable to developers than Broadstone which is mostly listed anyways. Hence, why I think why Navan trains will be going there and CIE’s sudden falling in love with it.

You have to bear in mind that the CIE business plan operates like this:

1. Keeping the NBRU from Striking Constantly
2. Property Portfolio
3. CIE Tours/Hotels/Tourism
4. Buses
5. Trains
6. Lorries
7. Harbours
8. Railfrieght

Property is CIE’s core business and has been since about 1999. The Broadstone V Docklands station debate is really just about seeing what cards they are holding and how many chips on the table.

But away from all that, with a bit of imagination, creativity and cooperation between CIE and RPA, Broadstone could be a fantastic interchange station and very useful.

Dig down a few metres, put DART track there (terminating) and the LUAS track above, turning out onto the street. Everyone’s a winner.

You mean to run the Luas on the street from Broadstone to Liffey Junction? My understanding is that the issue is not Broadstone itself but the cutting.

@notjim wrote:

You mean to run the Luas on the street from Broadstone to Liffey Junction? My understanding is that the issue is not Broadstone itself but the cutting.

Yes the RPA is only interested in the actually trackbed from Broadstone to Liffey Junction. But any Luas line would have to enter the station area itself to get to the trackbed. There are 2 ways they can do this either up the main entrance ramp which might interfere with bus depot access, or through the portal to the old goods yard further up the street but that would require some rebuilding of the entrance. Not sure if that’s possible.

dowlingm’s idea of a bi level track makes a lot of sense. The Luas does not need a lot of ovehead room and the cutting from Boradstone to Liffey Junction is very deep. It’s the ideal solution alright and would allow the Luas to have a stop on the old Cabra Road as well.

Navan trains on the track bed and Luas trams on a viaduct above them. Sweet.

that’s a brilliant idea, that’s also improve pedestrian access to DIT if there was foot path along the luas lin between Broadstone and liffey junction

@Cute Panda wrote:

That is the Maynooth DART. The actual terminating of the Navan trains was alway very vague with Docklands mentioned half-heartedly.

If I was to make a cynical guess, I would reckon that CIE see the land bank around Docklands Stations are being far more valuable to developers than Broadstone which is mostly listed anyways. Hence, why I think why Navan trains will be going there and CIE’s sudden falling in love with it.

You have to bear in mind that the CIE business plan operates like this:

1. Keeping the NBRU from Striking Constantly
2. Property Portfolio
3. CIE Tours/Hotels/Tourism
4. Buses
5. Trains
6. Lorries
7. Harbours
8. Railfrieght

Property is CIE’s core business and has been since about 1999. The Broadstone V Docklands station debate is really just about seeing what cards they are holding and how many chips on the table.

But away from all that, with a bit of imagination, creativity and cooperation between CIE and RPA, Broadstone could be a fantastic interchange station and very useful.

This is shamefully 100% true. The whole board should be sacked. A glance through any CIE tenders issued in the past couple of years will verify the above, e.g the shameful waste of an opportunity to create a mass transit interchange on the site of the Connolly car park is being squandered to build another speculative office block I am amazed it is not more o a political sore point. Inda Kinny and chums could put a huge dossier together on this but the fact they haven’t shows the general disdain for public transport in this country:(

having the tram use that section of track is far preferable to having the Navan trains going there:

1. Broadstone is an even less desirable terminus than Docklands for most commuters.
2. MaynoothLeixlip commuters (and the maynooth line will be a full dart service, much more frequent than the navan trains) would have to change twice to get onto the Luas.

though tbh, I think that particular Luas extension will not be built in the short to medium term – it partly duplicates the Metro and as a result will be first on the chopping block when the economy tightens.

@Rory W wrote:

Youll never get a tram up that gradient – Reinstall the bridge that used to carry the canal across the phibsborough road a la Dundrum and use it for Luas (run from O’Connell via Dominic Street)

It happens on the Green Line every day of the week to get over the Grand Canal. the Broadstone ramp would be no major challenge.

Think a bridge would be better meself if the line runs via Dominic Street

Irish Times reporting today that “Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey last night informed CIÉ that it will have to drop ambitious plans for a heavy rail hub at Broadstone in Dublin in favour of a Luas line under the aegis of the Rail Procurement Agency (RPA)”

What a terrible wasting asset Broadstone is. Would be great to see it rejuvenated and given life. The magnificent side colonnade could be opened up with (grimace) shops & cafes.

yes, it actually is so close to the city centre and probably almost as close to the Spire as Connolly. I used to live near it just by McGowans pub and you are only about 7-8 minute walk from Parnell St going down Dominic St. What a waste that such a fine building is only being used as a bus depot.

In the on-line article on Broadstone, the following item is noted:

‘The original railway shed roof designed by Richard Turner proved to be too ambitious for the span and was replaced after it collapsed in the early 1850s’.

I have not come across this in any other readings I have done on the station. Can Archiseek confirm their source, or does anyone else know anything about this claim?

There’s a reference to it in The Buildings of Ireland – Dublin: Yale UP (2005), p.283 (near the bottom of the page; the architect for the replacement was GW Hemans).