Planning permission granted for new Cork railway station

One of eight new stations planned for the Cork network

Concept image of the planned new railway station at Blackpool, Cork.

Planning permission has been granted for a new railway station in Cork's Blackpool that will form part of Irish Rail's Cork Area Commuter Rail programme.

The new station will be located at Kilbarry, overlooking Blackpool, and will be one of eight new stations that will ultimately see trains run between Mallow, Midleton and Cobh every ten minutes.

More than €1bn in funding is to be provided for the development of the network, as part of the updated National Development Plan (NDP) allocations. Work is nearing completion, adding a second track between Midleton and Glounthaun along with signalling upgrades, while a new €23m platform at Kent Station opened last year.

Irish Rail lodged the planning application for the Blackpool station in July. The planned new station will comprise 120m platforms on either side of the Cork–Mallow line linked by a covered footbridge with lifts and stairs. A second universal-access entrance will be created from Redforge Road via a 21m lift shaft. The station will include an 83-space park-and-ride and 59 bicycle spaces.

Road upgrades are included at the Dublin Hill Road Middle junction, along with a relocated bus stop and reconfigured IÉ maintenance compound.

A separate planning application for a rail station at Dunkettle was lodged during the summer and is currently awaiting a planning decision. It will be served by the Cork-Cobh and Cork-Midleton lines and include a 300-space park and ride.

Other rail stations are proposed for Blarney/Stoneview, Monard, Tivoli, Ballynoe, Carrigtwohill West and Water-Rock.

Blackpool and Dunkettle stations are being progressed now because they sit on land Iarnród Éireann already owns. Construction on both is expected to start in 2027 and take up to two years.

It is the second attempt to build a new rail station in Kilbarry. Planning permission was granted in 2008 for a station with 100 parking spaces. CIÉ secured a five-year extension, but it lapsed in 2018 without development, "precluded by funding constraints at the time," according to the planning report. The site's rail history goes back further still. It is part of the old Kilbarry station, which was the temporary terminus of the Dublin to Cork line from 1849 to 1855, before the Glanmire Tunnel opened and services shifted to what's now Kent Station.