Major Accessibility upgrade to get underway at Athy Station Car Parking Capacity will be temporarily reduced during construction period

09 October 2024

Iarnród Éireann plans to undertake a major accessibility upgrade to Athy Station. Work is due to commence on 14th October next.

The works include:

• The provision of a new footbridge over the railway, which will feature two 13 person lifts.
• Fencing works on platform 1 and 2
• Redesign and marking of existing accessible car parking spaces adjacent to the station building.
• Upgrade of station lighting adjacent to the station building and new footbridge.
• Improvements to accessible wayfinding signage and installation of tactile signage; including a tactile map at the station entrance.
• Provision of help points and induction loops, connecting to the existing public address system.
• Amendments to the ticket desk in the Ticket office
• Significant upgrade to the toilet facilities.

During the construction period, carparking at the station will be reduced. The Station has two car parks, one owned at operated by Iarnród Éireann and one owned and operated by Kildare County Council. Part o f the Iarnród Éireann car park will be used as a construction compound for the duration of the works. Once complete, it will be returned to car parking. It is anticipated that the reduced amount of car parking will continue to satisfy car parking demand at the station.

Separate to this a number of stations in Kildare will see their lifts upgraded as part of the nationwide Big Lift programme. Works on the lifts at Hazelhatch and Celbridge (platforms 1 and 5) are nearing completion and Newbridge will be completed by year end. Work is also underway on a major accessibility upgrade at Maynooth Station.

Funded by the National Transport Authority, an integral element of Iarnrod Éireann’s ongoing investment programme is to continuously improve accessibility of its stations and services. Bridge works at Little Island and Banteer in Cork were completed this year and work is underway at bridges at 10 more stations. In total, 52 stations across the network will have seen lift improvement or replacement works between 2020 and 2024 under The Big Lift programme, delivering a significant improvement in lift availability and reliability for mobility impaired customers.

The company’s Disability Users Group provides direct input from disability representative bodies and users of rail services in developing accessibility programmes and projects.

Under DART+, the new DART+ fleet – arriving from 2024 and entering service from 2025 – will have a retractable step at every door to address the gap between the train and the platform. This will facilitate independent access for the vast majority of mobility impaired customers.