As you can see from some of my photographs it can be difficult the difference between Broadstone, Grangegorman and Phibsboro [or Phibsborough].


Today Broadstone is a Luas Tram stop on the LUAS Cross City Line between Broombridge and St.Stephen's Green. Work on building the line commenced in June 2013 and services began on 9 December 2017. It it should be noted that the "Cross City" line is now operated as part of an extended Green Line Service.

The stop has lateral platforms and is located adjacent to the south front of the old Broadstone station building with access from Constitution Hill. The stop is called Broadstone-DIT due to its location near to DIT Grangegorman Campus. The LUAS line from central Dublin approaches via Domininck Street Upper and continues by curling round the western edge of the MGWR Broadstone site before re-joining the track of the old main line at the north of the site.


Broadstone railway station was the Dublin terminus of the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR), located in the Dublin suburb of Broadstone. The site also contained the MGWR railway works and a steam locomotive motive power depot. A LUAS tram station opened at the front of the station in 2017.

It is currently the headquarters of Bus Éireann, housing most of their administration and one of their main garages. Nearby on the same property is a Dublin Bus Depot.

Designed by John Skipton Mulvany, the structure was built between 1841 and 1850, with the addition of the colonnade in 1861. Broadstone Station is constructed of granite in a neo-Egyptian style. The 475 feet (145 m) by 120 feet (37 m) two span roof is said to have been basis of the design for the larger span at Liverpool Lime street.

In 1845 the Royal Canal was purchased by the Midland Great Western Railway Company (MGWR) with a view to using the land alongside the canal to construct a railway line to the west of Ireland. The line was constructed in stages and by 1848 reached Mullingar. Similarly Broadstone station was worked in tandem with opening in 1847 and final completion 1850. The MGWR developed locomotive and carriage works around the station.

With the construction of the colonnade in 1861 trains arrived to the east side platform and passengers exited through the colonnade. Trains departed from the west side platform where there was a booking office and waiting rooms. The four middle tracks were used to stable rolling stock in the interim. The building at front of the station was used as the headquarters building for the MGWR and did not contain a passenger entrance.

With Galway projected to become the main port for transatlantic passenger traffic between Europe and North America, the MGWR successfully competed with its rival the Great Southern and Western Railway to reach it first in August 1851. A special fourth class was introduced by the MGWR for poor migrants from the west going to Britain for work. The line, which branched out to serve Sligo, Westport, Achill and Clifden, was also used to transport large numbers of cattle.

It was about this time that the majority of the houses in the area were constructed, as dwellings for workers on the railway. Most of the houses were built by the Artisan's Dwelling Company, which built many similar estates in Dublin and elsewhere, and houses of this type are now frequently described as Artisan cottages, regardless of their origin.

Joseph Howley, a member of the Irish Volunteers in Galway, was shot dead by a special unit of the RIC known as the Igoe Gang at the station on 4 December 1920 during the Irish War of Independence.

The station was closed to public traffic on 18 January 1937 and finally closed on 8 April 1961, having been used as the steam depot for Dublin between 1937 and this date.

This building was one of Dublin's six original rail termini, the others being Westland Row (now Pearse Station) Amiens Street (now Connolly Station), Kingsbridge (now Heuston Station), North Wall and Harcourt Street (now a bar and nightclub complex).