EASTER WEEKEND 2023
Easter weekend did not start well for me. I arrived at Pearse Station after discovering that there was no general public access to Trinity College only to discover that trains terminated at Dun Laoghaire [Good Friday – Easter Monday]. The limited service will be a problem for me on Easter Sunday as I had been invited to Sunday lunch in Dalkey.
Pearse railway station or Dublin Pearse is a railway station on Westland Row on the Southside of Dublin, Ireland. It is Ireland’s busiest commuter station and second busiest station overall (behind Dublin Connolly railway station) with 9 million passenger journeys through the station in 2016.
Major renovation commenced in 2007 with publicity erected in the station for this in March 2008. As part of phase 1, automatic ticket validation machines were installed on platforms 1 and 2. The front entrance of the station was changed. The former Spar shop was completely taken out of the station and the old ticket barriers were removed. Platforms 3, 4 and 5 were removed. New signage and CCTV cameras were added on both active platforms and, on Platform 2, a larger waiting area for passengers was provided.
An additional Southbound entrance (Pearse Street and Trinity Bio Science) was opened 9 April 2013. At the official opening of the entrance by Minister Leo Varadkar the National Transport Authority used the term Pearse Street Station[c] in the title of a page on its website although there was no evidence of any official renaming. with other examples of that usage in media elsewhere.
The roof structure comprises two main sections – the main station area roof has 40 barrelled roof trusses, each spanning 28 metres, over 38 bays, with additional gable end structures at both ends. Adjacent to the main station roof there is a second similar roof, which covers a car park and station infrastructure area. This is smaller and comprises 19 trusses over 18 bays. A €10m roof replacement project started in August 2018 and was completed in June 2020. Pearse Station was closed for 13 weekends over the two years to facilitate the replacement project. During these weekends, northside DART, Maynooth and Drogheda services operated to and from Connolly Station, with southside DART and Rosslare services operating from Grand Canal Dock.
