Reopening Kildangan train station
Deputy Ní Raghallaigh proposes reopening dormant Kildangan station to serve a growing population and ease commuter pressure. The Tánaiste says the case is compelling and will ask the Minister to engage and respond.
I would like to raise a proposal to reopen Kildangan train station, which has lain dormant since 1963. The population of Kildangan in south Kildare has doubled in the past ten years and is set to increase further on foot of recent rezoning. There is a huge rural hinterland and people would take the train from Kildangan if parking was available. Many of these people currently commute to Kildare town, and that car park is oversubscribed. We need more transport capacity to serve one of the fastest-growing population centres in the State and ease pressure on existing infrastructure. Reviving the old train station is a viable and constructive solution. Precedent exists. Adamstown train station was built before new developments. Dromod train station in Leitrim serves a population of just 500, with eight daily stops. A 2023 environs study examined reopening Killucan railway station. I ask the Tánaiste to raise this issue with the Minister for Transport and Irish Rail. Will he commission a feasibility study for the station's reopening in the medium term?
Comment on this
I thank Deputy Ní Raghallaigh for raising the issue. I truthfully do not know enough about that train station, other than that she makes a compelling case about how population growth needs to be met by improved public transport. Her suggestion that a train station that previously existed could be reopened certainly merits the Minister engaging with her on that. On foot of the Deputy raising it, I will engage with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and ask that he come back to the Deputy with an informed view on the suggestions she made.