PUBLIC TRANSPORT

All Photographs Supplied By William Murphy

Home » Royal Canal

Royal Canal

AT OR NEAR THE BROADSTONE PLAZA OR THE GRANGEGORMAN GATE

by

THE LUAS TRAM STOP IS LOCATED HERE

Broadstone is one of three neighbourhood’s that together form the modern-day Phibsboro area in Dublin, Ireland. Situated furthest south among these, it starts just two kilometers north of the Father Mathew Bridge at Ormond Quay. The area is triangular in shape, bordered by Phibsborough Road and Constitution Hill on the west, North Circular Road on the north, and Dorset Street and Bolton Street on the southeast. Its postal code is Dublin 7.

The Grangegorman Gate, built as part of the Luas Cross City project, serves as a vital entrance to the Grangegorman University campus. This completed public plaza now significantly connects Grangegorman to the heart of Dublin. It’s located off Constitution Hill where the old Royal Canal once was, at the site of the former Great Western Railway Station (commonly called Broadstone), and is now a major gateway to the Grangegorman urban quarter.

The Broadstone area, bordering Grangegorman on its east, underwent a Part VIII planning process in 2014 to enable site development and gate access.

The Grangegorman Masterplan envisions the main urban path through Grangegorman, St Brendan’s Way, connecting with the Broadstone Gate, ultimately reaching Prussia Street. This Broadstone link can also be viewed as an extension of Dublin’s historic 18th-century core, which stretched from Dublin Castle across Grattan Bridge, along Capel Street/Bolton Street, to Henrietta Street and King’s Inn.

ASHTOWN TRAIN STATION ON THE ROYAL CANAL

by

PHOTOGRAPHED USING A ZEISS BATIS 135mm LENS

I tried to take advantage of the unusual lighting and multiple reflecting surfaces at the railway station and the fact that I had a Zeiss Batis 135mm lens which compressed the view.

The Dublin-Sligo railway passes through the area and it is served by Ashtown railway station, which opened on 1 August 1902. Stopping at Ashtown is the Western Commuter service, which runs frequently between Maynooth and Pearse Station in the city centre. The area is also served by the 120 Dublin Bus route, which terminates at the railway station, and by the 37, 38, 39 and 70 routes, which pass nearby on the Navan Road.

The Broombridge LUAS Green Line station (adjacent to the railway station) opened in December 2017. A new railway station, called Pelletstown, was opened in September 2021, lying between Broombridge and Ashtown stations.

ASHTOWN COMMUTER RAILWAY STATION

by

4 SEPTEMBER 2023

Navan Road Parkway (formerly Phoenix Park) opened nearby in 2008 but does not replace Ashtown. A major grade-separated junction was built on the R147 to provide access to Navan Road Parkway.

The ticket office is open from 06:30 to 16:00, Monday to Friday. It is closed on Saturday and Sunday.

The station was opened by the Midland Great Western Railway in 1847 for race specials at the now-demolished Phoenix Park Racecourse. It opened fully on 1 August 1902. Absorbed into the Great Southern Railways by way of the Railways (Great Southern) Preliminary Amalgamation Scheme of 12 November 1924 (SI no. 31 of that year), the station closed in 1934.

The line through the station was then nationalised, passing on to Córas Iompair Éireann as a result of the Transport Act 1944 which took effect from 1 January 1945. Under this management, it reopened briefly in 1979 for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in order to facilitate the large numbers who attended the open-air mass in the Phoenix Park and reopened permanently on 11 January 1982. It passed on to Iarnród Éireann in 1987.

MAYNOOTH RAILWAY STATION APRIL 2023

by

A BEAUTIFUL SETTING

The station is situated on the south side of the Royal Canal, opposite Dukes’ Harbour. Access to Maynooth is by either the footbridge to the west, which leads to the Main Street of Maynooth; west along the canal walk to residential areas of the town, or via the road bridges to the east, which lead north to the older part of Maynooth, or south to the newer areas.

The station has two staffed ticket desks and four automated ticket machines, one inside and three outside the station building. The ticket office is open from 06:00 AM to 23:15 PM, Monday to Sunday.

The footbridge crossing the tracks and connecting the two platforms was originally situated at Lansdowne Road railway station.

From Maynooth onwards to Sligo, the line is a single-track railway, the line being a double-track railway from Maynooth to Bray.

The 2018 NTA Heavy Rail Census showed 6,625 passengers using the station on the day of the survey, up from 6,228 in 2017 and 5,262 in 2016.