Arklow win the 2012 Iarnród Éireann Best Station Award

The Stroller

ARKLOW IS IRELAND’S BEST STATION! Ballinasloe, Killarney, Clongriffin, M3 Parkway & Connolly also win major awards

06 June 2012

Arklow has been named Overall Best Train Station in Ireland at the annual Iarnród Éireann Best Station Awards, which took place today at Iarnród Éireann’s Inchicore Engineering Works. The awards were presented by Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Dr. Leo Varadkar T.D.

The station plays a key role in the life of the Co Wicklow commuter town and victory is all the more sweet as the winner was chosen by Iarnród Éireann customers. Arklow came out on top in the four criteria of the text and email poll which were: Staff helpfulness, Staff appearance, station appearance and customer information.

Regional winners

Arklow also collected the title of Best Leinster Station, beating off competition from Kilkenny and Dundalk stations.

In Connacht, Ballinasloe emerged victorious, with Station Manager, Peter Caulfield leading the team to collect the award. Claremorris and Boyle Stations were highly commended in the West.

Munster saw Killarney taking the top title, following on from their overall best station title for the last two years. Catherine Cahill was proud to pick up the award. Glounthaune and Thurles stations were highly commended by customers.

The Best DART station for 2012 was Clongriffin Station, beating Raheny and Sandycove/Glasthule. Fergus Murray and Paul Finnegan collected the award for Clongriffin.

M3 Parkway was named Best Commuter Station for the first time, pipping Donabate and Skerries to the post to the award. Arthur Candlish and Luke Doyle were there to pick up the award.

Customer Service Award

In addition to regional winners a special award was presented at today’s ceremony. Connolly collected the special crystal steam locomotive trophy for Best Customer Service. As a busy DART, Commuter and Intercity station in Dublin city centre Connolly provides customer care of the highest standards. Customers recognised this in the text and web voting. Station Manager Eddie Halpin was joined by his team and regular customer Jane McDermott to collect the Award.

Well done to all the stations which collected the award, the many stations which narrowly missed out, and to our customers for helping us choose this year’s winners.

http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_news.jsp?i=4616&p=116&n=237

foggy_lad

I thought Broombridge would have been tops for best commuter station at least?

Judgement Day

It's all a load of PR hogwash - not worth a damn. A competition with serious cash prizes for the best ways of saving/generating revenue (open to the public too) would be much more worthwhile but then that would be 'thinking outside the box'.

dowlingm

IE shouldn't own many stations anyway. They should be the property of the town/city they are based in and used as a halt for all public transport services through the area - so in Arklow's case Wexford Bus should be able to stop there and people should be able to buy tickets for that service if the ticket office is staffed.

Judgement Day

As you said before, the railway station should be the hub of any town village served but that's never going to happen under CIE control. Their idea is to de-staff everywhere, raze buildings to the ground or flog them off to retired CIE officials.

Hilly Bill

I cant see how Clongriffin won the best dart station

deRanged

The Stroller wrote: »

Glounthaune and Thurles stations were highly commended by customers.

I'm delighted for the guy in Glounthaune. He's always really helpful, goes out of his way and keeps the place looking great.

Losty Dublin

Hilly Bill wrote: »

I cant see how Clongriffin won the best dart station

Because it's newest and less beaten up by locals?

kingshankly

Hilly Bill wrote: »

I cant see how Clongriffin won the best dart station

I wonder who picked up the award as its unmaned:)

foggy_lad

kingshankly wrote: »

I wonder who picked up the award as its unmaned:)

The security guard that stops the hooligans from taking the shiny new look off the station:D

One good thing about all these awards is that if these staff get made redundant they should easily find new employment as landscape gardners.

AngryLips

I'm not sure how long it has been going on, since I don't use it that much, but it has to be said that Connolly is looking much improved these days with Pearse not far behind it.

Gone are the days when Dundalk would win it every year.

Lapin

dowlingm wrote: »

IE shouldn't own many stations anyway. They should be the property of the town/city they are based in and used as a halt for all public transport services through the area - so in Arklow's case Wexford Bus should be able to stop there and people should be able to buy tickets for that service if the ticket office is staffed.

This already happens at stations that are close to the town centre (eg Athlone). But there would be no sense in a bus serving a station a mile outside the town centre (eg Ballinasloe), when it serves the town centre anyway.

BTW, congrats to Ballinasloe for winning Best Station in Connacht !

PseudoFamous

Yknow, that's three on the trot. We should probably get improved services as a reward for being so exemplary.

Hell, even if they gave us back the service we had three years ago, I'd be delighted.

Judgement Day

Yeah, Arklow is getting very tidy these days. Tidy away the messy old rail freight depot , tidy away the messy old Fastrack , and eventually tidy away the passengers and the place will be spotless.

steamengine

foggy_lad wrote: »

The security guard that stops the hooligans from taking the shiny new look off the station:D

One good thing about all these awards is that if these staff get made redundant they should easily find new employment as landscape gardners.

Clongriffin is a very attractive modern suburban station, which hopefully will come into its own passenger-wise when the economy improves. Delighted to see it getting an award. :D

end of the road

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Yknow, that's three on the trot. We should probably get improved services as a reward for being so exemplary.

Hell, even if they gave us back the service we had three years ago, I'd be delighted.

theyl shut lift and demolish the line and everything to do with it before such a thing could happen.

PseudoFamous

Judgement Day wrote: »

eventually tidy away the passengers and the place will be spotless.

Yeah, those people up from Enniscorthy are really an eyesore. They should probably raze the Enniscorthy station to prevent them from stinking up other towns.

Corkfeen

deRanged wrote: »

I'm delighted for the guy in Glounthaune. He's always really helpful, goes out of his way and keeps the place looking great.

Was thinking the exact same thing. He's such a friendly guy and how many train stations have a man playing random bands or classical music. It's a strange experience in contrast to other stations.

Hilly Bill

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Because it's newest and less beaten up by locals?

Its not even finished and the platforms are full of pidgeon doo doos .

Hilly Bill

foggy_lad wrote: »

The security guard that stops the hooligans from taking the shiny new look off the station:D

One good thing about all these awards is that if these staff get made redundant they should easily find new employment as landscape gardners.

You havent been to clongriffin yet then