There will be major disruption to certain services at Heuston and Connolly train stations in Dublin this weekend as a result of improvement works.
However, Iarnród Éireann estimates that 80 per cent of travellers at Heuston will not be affected, as the work does not start until tomorrow morning and ends at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
No trains will leave Heuston throughout tomorrow and until up to 4 p.m. on Sunday because of a €117 million redevelopment programme at the station. Instead, bus transfers will operate between Heuston and stations in Kildare, connecting passengers with Intercity train services.
For the Cork and Kerry services, the bus transfer will be between Newbridge and Heuston station, while passengers on the Waterford service will travel by bus between Athy and Heuston station.
Passengers travelling between Heuston and Galway, Westport and Limerick will use bus transfers between Sallins and Dublin. There will be no Dublin-Kildare commuter services during these times.
While most services will operate normally today, the following services to and from Heuston Station will be affected:
The 7.15 p.m. service from Cork to Heuston and the 5 p.m. service from Westport to Heuston will terminate at Sallins and a bus will take passengers to Heuston station.
The 6.08 p.m. service from Galway to Heuston will also terminate at Kildare, where passengers will transfer to the 6.25 p.m. service from Waterford to Heuston.
The 9.45 p.m. and the 10.45 p.m. Heuston-Kildare commuter services will be replaced by bus transfers.
Iarnród Éireann has advised customers to travel at other times if possible, as capacity will be limited where bus transfers are involved.
The redevelopment at Heuston includes the commissioning of three new platforms and the installation of computerised signalling.
After this weekend's work, the new platforms 6, 7 and 8 will operate services for the first time and the resignalling of Heuston station from mechanical to computerised will be complete. The extended platform 5 will also resume service.
After this weekend, platforms 1-4 will close for track renewal, platform extension and resurfacing work, and services will operate from platforms 5-8 and 10.
Commuters from Kildare and Portlaoise should remember that from next Monday certain Kildare-Heuston and Heuston-Kildare-Portlaoise services will operate from platform 10. This platform is one kilometre from the Heuston station concourse, so customers should allow at least 10 minutes to get from the transfer bus to the train. The bus will leave from the main terminal.
Meanwhile, the ongoing work on the East Wall road bridge will affect services at Connolly station this weekend. There will be limited northside DART and Drogheda/Dundalk suburban services, with bus transfers between Tara Street and Clontarf Road.
The Dublin-Belfast Enterprise service will operate to a full timetable, but with bus transfers between Connolly station and Drogheda.
Departures will leave from Connolly up to 40 minutes earlier than normal.
Southside DART services between Connolly and Bray/Greystones will operate normally this weekend.
Full details of these changes are available in special timetables at Iarnród Éireann stations, from the Iarnród Éireann information line at 1850 366 222 or from the website www.irishrail.ie
The East Wall road bridge works will continue every second weekend up to and including the weekend beginning November 9th.
Iarnród Éireann has apologised for any inconvenience caused by what it describes as essential works.
