Why Isn't Killarney Terminal a Through Station?

MyLove4Satan

Surely closing the existing station and moving to a new station a few hundred meters to create a run through to Tralee should have happened by now?

Shedite27

Seems like very little benefit for the effort

AngryLips

The same could be said about Kilkenny

LXFlyer

Killarney is by far the busiest station on the Kerry route.

The current station location is far more suited to the town, being within walking distance of the majority of hotels in the town.

A relocated station would have to have an entrance beyond the Omniplex on Park Road, which would more than double the walking distance to most of the hotels. Also there would be CPO costs incurred to provide access to such a station.

Making changes that makes a service less attractive for the vast majority of passengers doesn't seem very clever to me.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117927492#Comment_117927492

There's nowhere to move Kilkenny to to make it a through station (again - it was until the 60s) as it is quite some distance at Lavistown

Killarney could be moved but it doesn't make sense as explained above. It was never a through station, that's the way the Tralee line was built. All the services are DMU or push-pull so the safety risk of driving a loco hauled train from the rear during the reverse manoeuvres are gone now

hi5

Kilkenny station was originally designed as part of the Waterford to Midlands line via Portlaoise and on to Mullingar (it only got as far as Mountmelick)

It was later linked to Carlow.

riddlinrussell

In answer to the actual 'why' of Killarney Station not being on the main Tralee-Mallow Line, is it due to it originally being a through station towards Glenbeigh, was it built first as a terminus and then line extended to Tralee, or just some Victorian weirdness?

L1011

It was first built as a terminus and the line was later extended. It was never a through station.

theguzman

The building of the new cinema in my view is a typical example of how there is no proper planning in Ireland as was the sale and privation of the freight yard in Killarney into the white elephant outlet centre. A shopping centre around 60% occupied since day one with the upstairs mainly empty.

A new station should have build on the Tralee line where the carpark of the new cinema now stands, that section could have been double tracked and use it as a direct route cutting alot of time off each service. The only thing I could see stopping it would the incline, the curve should not be an issue as you can see in similar curved stations like Newry. Millstreet station should be given an additional platform to utilise the passing loop and this would help cut down on delays alot as trains do often have to wait in either Banteer or Rathmore if there is a delay. Since Ryanair took over the Farranfore - Dublin flight alot of people in West Kerry, Tralee etc are opting to fly instead of spendinf 4+ hours on the DMU which are not at all comfortable. I often went Killarney to Heuston 3-4 times return a week before and always would prefer the Mark 4 for passenger comfort, opting for the 17:00 to Cork and swap at Mallow instead of taking the 17:05 DMU to Tralee with the additional stops down along. If going to Dublin Airport nowadays I use the Dublin coach instead.