500,000 extra commuters to pass through station

UP to 500,000 more passengers are expected to pass through Cork’s Kent Station this year.

The huge increase in business for Iarnród Éireann which is being put down primarily to the introduction of an hourly service to Dublin.

The company said the increase could mean that the 3 million passenger barrier will be broken this year — a record figure for the station, currently undergoing a €4.5 million revamp.

Iarnród Éireann media director Barry Kenny said that the company was very pleased with the increase. He suggested the increase was linked to the €117m investment in new trains which started operating hourly on the Cork-Dublin route last January.

“We now have 16,000 seats available on that route each day. We feel the increased capacity and frequency of services has been responsible for the increase.

“We are far and away the public transport market leader on the route (out-performing buses and aircraft) and our target is to attract more drivers away from the cars and into the train,” Mr Kenny said.

Currently a standard five-day return ticket on the Cork-Dublin route costs €61.50, but day return tickets — operating in midweek and on Saturday’s — are available for the knockdown price of €44.

The first train leaves Kent Station at 5.15am and then every hour at half past the hour from 6.30am to 8.30pm.

“The new services underline Cork-Dublin’s status as our flagship route, and also gives a strong choice of connections to Kerry and Limerick for our customers,” Mr Kenny said.

He added that Iarnród Éireann is already progressing the next phase of development on the Cork-Dublin route, with a feasibility study for 200km/h trains, capable of delivering journey times of two hours or less.

Andrew Roche, the company’s business development manager, said that 30 trains a day now run between Mallow and Cork and this was proving to be a very successful commuter route.