Adamstown, the first fully privately funded station on the Irish Rail
network, has opened in a new west Dublin suburb.
The £6.75 million station serves an urban district being built on a
Greenfield site in Ireland's first Strategic Development Zone about 10
miles from Dublin city centre.
Community facilities such as the station, schools, and leisure centres
are being provided before 30,000 residents move into newly-built houses
and apartments. It has been paid for by developers of the town, which
is not expected to be complete before 2014.
Train services to the station, which is on the Dublin Heuston to
Kildare line, started on 10 April. It was officially opened by
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern six days later.
The number of tracks on the Kildare line between the Dublin suburban
stations of Cherry Orchard and Hazelhatch is being doubled to allow the
segregation of intercity and commuter services and there will be more
new stations at Kishogue, Fonthill /Clondalkin and Parkwest.
Irish Rail has also begun planning and design work for a new three-mile
tunnel link from Heuston to the Docklands, where Dublin's first new
station for 116 years was opened in March. It was initially served by
trains to and from Connolly and Pearse.
There are also projects for electrification of more suburban services
and extensions to the light rail systems in the city.
Ireland's Republic Procurement agency has chosen Alstom to supply 18
Citadis trams for Dublin's light rail system, LUAS, in a £35 million
order. The 40-metre-long low-floor trams will be built at Alstom`s
Barcelona plant. The first ones will be delivered in December 2008.
The first of the new 10m long extensions have arrived in Ireland and
the first of the modified trams will go into service this month.