Dunshaughlin railway station is a proposed railway station intended to serve the town of

Dunshaughlin Dunshaughlin ( or locally ) is a town in County Meath, Ireland. A commuter town for nearby Dublin, Dunshaughlin more than tripled in population (from 1,275 to 4,035 inhabitants) between the 1991 and 2016 censuses. History Foundation Dunshaugh ...

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

, Ireland. The station had been planned to be built as part of the second phase of reinstatement of the Clonsilla-Navan line. However, as of 2012, these plans were deferred due to the reduction in the Exchequer capital investment programme. Dunshauglin was intended to be the first station on the Phase 2 section of the route, after the M3 Parkway

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...

station. The proposed route plans include 34 km of railway line, with stations at Dunshaughlin, Kilmessan, Navan town centre and a further station on the northern edge of Navan. In 2016, the National Transport Authority ruled that there was not a sufficient number of commuters to warrant a new station, but agreed to conduct a new study; a report was due be released in mid-2021. County councillors made representations to "ensure that the 'actual' population of Dunshaughlin" would be used in the determination of the need for a station.

Proposed location

The preferred route for Phase 2 of the extension of the

Dublin–Navan railway line The Dublin-Navan line (via Clonsilla) is a partially-open commuter rail line between Dublin and the town of Navan in County Meath. Since September 2010, train services operate from Docklands Station to M3 Parkway, with an extension to Navan itsel ...

was published in March 2009; it was intended that for the most part it would follow the disused route to

Navan Navan ( ; , meaning "the Cave") is the county town of County Meath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In 2016, it had a population of 30,173, making it the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland by population, tenth largest settlement in ...

. However, there was debate over the location of Dunshauglin station.

Iarnród Éireann Iarnród Éireann () or Irish Rail, is the operator of the national railway network of Ireland. Established on 2 February 1987, it is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ). It operates all internal InterCity, Commuter, DART and fr ...

favoured the existing route, which carries the railway line approximately 1.5 km to the west of the town, on the other side of the Dunshauglin interchange of the M3 motorway. Some County Meath Councillors expressed a preference that the route of the line should be "as close to Ratoath and Dunshaughlin as possible" and that "potential users should not have to cross the R147 and M3 to get to a train station".

References

Iarnród Éireann stations in County Meath Proposed railway stations in the Republic of Ireland {{Ireland-railstation-stub