Big expansion in Laois - Dublin trains on Portlaoise Commuter service

Dublin Laois train services are set to increase with a 'significant expansion' promised by Irish Rail on the Portlaoise to Heuston service.

Confirmation of a raft of new services was confirmed by Iarnród Éireann, which in conjunction with the National Transport Authority, has just revealed details of a new timetable from Sunday, December 10. The company says the changes follow public consultation on a draft timetable in September 2023. 

A total of 1,652 customers participated in the consultation. Irish Rail says it received feedback on every route, right across the network, and following review with the National Transport Authority

The company outlined changes in the busy commuter service.

"Significant expansion to Heuston to Portlaoise Commuter Sunday services, with eight additional commuter services from Portlaoise to Heuston, and seven from Heuston to Portlaoise, extending existing Heuston/Kildare services; there will also be additional stops on a number of Heuston/Cork services at Portlaoise, to connect with these Commuter services," said a statement.

The company confirmed that four Heuston to Cork and five Cork to Heuston services on Sundays will serve Portlaoise to provide connections to the enhanced Portlaoise Commuter service.

The company said it was not in a position to add a later last commuter service to Portlaoise due to limited track maintenance time. It said it would continue to investigate opportunities of operating later evening services.

As for adding Portlaoise to the 6am Heuston/Cork service, Irish Rail said this would negatively impact existing services/connections at Limerick Junction.

The company said adding a Portlaoise stop to the 8am Heuston/Cork would negatively impact on the journey time for this service, which it said is already has one of the longer journey times on the Heuston to Cork route.

The company says journey time improvements on many Dublin Heuston to Cork and Limerick services, arising from recent infrastructure works.

WATCH: New 92 space carpark opens beside Portlaoise train station

A new weekday service will operate on the Dublin to Limerick/Cork. The early service departing from Dublin at 6am, operating Monday to Friday, will arrive in Kent Station, Cork, at 8.32am, giving a pre-9 am intercity arrival from Dublin for the first time. The service which has a connection from Limerick Junction to Limerick, will deliver a pre-8 am arrival time to Limerick city (7.58am).

“We look forward to bringing these improvements to our services in December 2023, which follow previous expansion of services in December 2022. Iarnród Éireann with the National Transport Authority will continue to identify opportunities for further service improvements in the context of post-Covid travel patterns, as demand approaches, and on some routes exceeds, pre-pandemic levels. The purpose of investment in our network, fleet and services is to bring a better service to customers and allow more people to make a sustainable travel choice,” said an Irish Rail spokesperson.

The company said general sentiment towards the timetable is positive, with 74% of those who expressed an opinion being positively disposed, whether further suggested changes were made or not.

It said 54% of comments related to the Intercity network, with Commuter seeing 23% and DART 12%