Category Archives: Sallins

NASRUG negotiate extra train in evening gap

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NASRUG (Naas and Sallins Rail Users Group) is a commuter lobby group serving the users of Naas and Sallins railway station. A strong advocate of public transport, and a daily commuter to Dublin myself, I have been involved with the group since its inception.

We lobby on a number of matters but primarily on timetable changes, station facilities (parking, shelters, buildings), service levels (punctuality, reliability, announcements), ticketing and fare structures and longer term projects such as Transport 21 and route upgrades.

Looking back over the last few years I would say we have consistently punched above our weight and no less this week.

As in previous years, we received an advance copy of the timetable and whilst it was reasonable overall and included a few sweeteners (such as a later last train at 11pm which we’d always listed as a ‘nice-to-have’), there was one outstanding issue.

This was a gap in the evening service between 18.35 and 20.05 returning from Heuston to Sallins. For many people working a little later than the traditional 9-5 this posed significant problems in getting home. Allowing for the fact that Heuston itself is a bit away from most workplaces, many folk were stranded between these trains until the 20.05 and were stuck getting home at 9pm daily as a result.

Previous years negotiations had seen repeated improvements (we made a lot of breakthroughs in the 07 timetable including an improved evening service and a Sunday service) but this gap was the one remaining ‘black spot’ in the Sallins timetable.

Armed with a flood of protest from the online group I approached our contact in Irish Rail and made him fully aware of the difficulties posed. There were challenges around rolling stock and conflicts with mainline trains, but we kept on the pressure and IR kept with it, and I finally got the good news on Wednesday that we would indeed get an additional train.

From Monday, 10th December, the 18.50 service ex-Heuston will stop in Sallins. It will not be printed in official timetables, being an 11th hour concession, but it will operate.

Credit where credit’s due and Irish Rail took our points on board here. They showed flexibility and a willingness to meet us halfway and I am certainly appreciative.

NASRUG have always had a policy of positive engagement and whilst we can and do get tough when the occasion calls for it, equally we listen to the other side at all times and usually we meet in the middle.

Communications build trust, trust builds communications. It’s certainly worked out this time.

Sallins Bypass – the saga continues

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The story of the Sallins bypass has trundled on for many years now but it seems at last we have some light at the end of the tunnel.

To give some background, the village has grown from probably 500 people in the mid-nineties to nearly 5,000 by the early naughties and the nature and geographic spread of the village has changed accordingly. Whilst there was always a need for a bypass, ironically that need became most pressing just as the route threatened to slice the village in two as the expanded community now sits on both sides of the original route. Many people who bought houses in Sallins Pier, Sallins Wharf, Castlesize in particular but also Hunters Wood, Oldbridge and others were blissfully unaware that council plans showed that lovely green space in front of their houses to be actually ‘road reservation’ i.e. the proposed location for taking all the HGVs and through traffic off the main street but into the estates instead.

Now living in one of those houses myself, I first became aware of the issue when we asked our solicitor what the faint dotted line on the plans were! It was the day we signed so we had little option or appetite to withdraw and find out more at that stage.

Anyway things moved on and between myself and some concerned colleagues on the residents association we set about making our case to the various authorities that we would not take this lightly. Deputy Fitzpatrick also threw his support behind a route review having discussed the matter with me and other residents, to cut a long story short all our efforts were rewarded when Kildare County Council earlier this year put on display a number of route options, including the original through our estates, but with enough alternatives to suit anyone’s fancy but a grumblers (to quote my nan!)

Sallins Bypass Route Options
click the map to enlarge

There was much local debate about the various options and we sought to find consensus with at least one public meeting in the community centre which I co-chaired, and eventually the majority view appeared to favour the cyan/red route as shown hatched on the map and endorsed by the community council. Although this route makes much sense in terms of traffic flows in and out of Naas as well as linking with the proposed N7 interchange, I had slight personal concerns about this route, as it crosses over the Liffey and Canal and ventures into hitherto green belt territory in some of the rare amenity spaces we have. However assurances were given that the route would be sympathetic to environmental surrounds and should be far enough out to leave a green belt in place around the village environs and preserve heritage such as the Leinster Aqueduct.

This was borne out in submissions to the council where over 75% of feedback backed this route and it now looks set to proceed. There will be a further public consultation as some residents in the direct path of this route have requested a slight deviation to minimise the disruption so this proposed alteration will go on display shortly and the process will repeat only this time with a focus on the selected option and variants.

At the end of the day the road is needed, it has to go somewhere, it’s no longer cutting through the housing estates and it’s spent twenty years gathering dust in the county engineer’s offices, so it’s progress, it’s positive and now bring it on.