Rail travellers to be hit by stadium redevelopment

The multi-million euro redevelopment of Lansdowne Road stadium is on track to disrupt rail commuters in the coming months, it was announced today.

The West Stand of the arena, which towers over the southern rail line, will be demolished over the next two bank holiday weekends – resulting in the closure of all stations between Tara Street and Sydney Parade.

Passengers on DART, commuter and Rosslare lines travelling on August 4, 5 and 6, and October 27, 28, and 29 will all be affected by the move.

However, in a bid to cause minimum disruption to commuters in the future, Iarnrod Eireann has said it will carry out improvement works at Pearse Station at the same time

People on the Rosslare-Dublin and Gorey/Arklow-Dublin services are being advised that bus transfers will operate between Greystones and Dublin.

DART services will be suspended between Tara Street and Sydney Parade Stations.

A shuttle bus service will operate between Tara Street and Booterstown Stations for customers making cross-city journeys, or travelling from southside stations to the city centre.

Services will operate as normal between Tara Street and Howth/Malahide, and from Sydney Parade to Bray/Greystones.

A full Northern and Maynooth line commuter service will operate to/from Connolly Station.

In May, diggers moved in to flatten the historic arena which is undergoing a €350m redevelopment.

At the time developers said the demolition and construction of the new stadium would not interfere with the train line.

Construction of a new 50,000-seater stadium will begin next May, opening for matches in 2010.

“Iarnrod Eireann apologises for the inconvenience and disruption caused by the Lansdowne Road Stadium development,” said spokesman Barry Kenny.

“Iarnrod Eireann will also avail of the opportunity these works present to undertake station improvement works at Pearse Station, to prevent unnecessary disruption in the future.”