Campaign for hourly train service from Carlow to Dublin gets head of steam
There are typically nine direct services from Carlow to Dublin Heuston on weekdays
LOCAL politicians are campaigning for an hourly train service between Carlow and Dublin Heuston, which they hope will help alleviate the long delays that commuters face on the N7/M7 motorways.
The campaign is being spearheaded by Mark Wall, a Labour TD for Kildare South, who in June 2025 called for an hourly train service to Athy Train Station by expanding the Dublin Heuston to Waterford rail line, which stops at Carlow.
Carlow town Labour Party has launched a petition calling on the National Transport Authority and Irish Rail to deliver an hourly train service to Carlow Train Station; the petition has over 110 signatures.
On 3 March, deputy Wall asked minister for transport Darragh O’Brien, in a Dáil Éireann debate on the rail network, if he could provide an update on the provision of an hourly train service for train stations in Carlow and Kilkenny along the Waterford to Heuston line.
Minister O’Brien said that such a question was out of his remit as minister because he was responsible for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport, not the day-to-day operations of public transport. Instead, minister O’Brien directed deputy Wall to ask Iarnród Éireann.
Deputy Wall told : “We have received an encouraging reply back from Irish Rail on our calls for an hourly train service for Carlow and Kilkenny along the Waterford to Heuston line. Irish Rail have said that as the new DART+ fleet enters service for the greater Dublin area in 2027 and onwards, this will free up additional carriages to be used elsewhere in the rail network and will be subject to demand.
“It will also be important to push for changes as part of the rail timetables review later this year.”
At present, there are typically nine direct services from Carlow to Dublin Heuston on weekdays, which run about every three hours.
Muinebheag Fianna Fáil cllr Daniel Pender has also been advocating for more frequent train services to Carlow and Bagenalstown Train Station.
“The number of trains per day is not that great. The times can be pretty awkward, and in the morning a lot of the carriages are quite full. If you don’t book a couple of days in advance and you find yourself going up to Dublin for the day, you’re snookered – you’re going to be stood for the full hour, crammed in like a sardine.
"We need more carriages to go on the existing services and probably a few additional services to come. It’s under-resourced and it’s a very simple win, to be quite honest with you,” cllr Pender said.
In January, Kilkenny Co Council wrote to the Department of Transport requesting the addition of an early morning train service to Waterford, which would go via Carlow. Councillors had raised concerns about the timing and frequency of trains on the route when they claimed that the earliest a train could get someone there was past 10am, which, they said, was too late for students and many people who commute to work.
