It is 6.30am on a Wednesday at Rathdrum railway station in Co Wicklow. It is dark, cold and grim.
A derelict three-storey building stands at the entrance to the platforms. Rotting plywood covers the ground floor doors and windows.
Lights on the southbound platform flicker on occasionally, illuminating empty alcohol containers and a temporary metal fence around a construction site.
Irish Rail hopes old diesel trains can be redeployed to this route once new battery-electric Dart trains come on stream.
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Incoming Irish Rail chief executive Mary Considine last week acknowledged that the new Darts have been delayed until at least the spring of 2027. This will delay any cascade of additional trains hitting the network’s black spots for a while yet.
The announcement came the same day The Irish Times took the early morning train from Rathdrum to talk to passengers about their commuting experience.
Having arrived early for the 7.15am train, Kaylasheane Ní Eigeartaigh was heading for college in Bray. The train was scheduled to arrive in Bray by 7.58am, so she would be about an hour early. Waiting for the later train: the 8.48am from Rathdrum, was not an option as it would leave her in Bray at 9.29am, which is too late.
She had “no hope of a seat”, she says.
Abigail Byrne was waiting for the same 7.15am train to head to Bray. It is not a good service, she says, but “the evening is worse.”
Delia Termini, originally from the United States, travels to Dublin with her partner most days. She told The Irish Times she has written to the National Transport Authority and local TDs about crowding on the route. This has been to no avail.
“There are something like 16 trains each morning coming into Dublin from Drogheda and at least 14 from Kildare, but just three from Rathdrum,” she says. “There is no chance of a seat. Two women fainted in September.”
Kornel Szovati, who recently started a job in Bray, says he could not manage without the service, “but whether you would get a seat is another story”. His friend Aaron Cairnduff says he stood every day during his first two weeks of college.
On board, passengers placed themselves in the aisles. A young woman, sleeping against her partner’s shoulder, sat on the floor near the doorway.
Daryl Eogan says the best chance of getting a seat was on a “Monday or a Friday in summer”, as the schools and colleges are closed and many people work at home.
At Wicklow town, Ross Marron boarded carrying a fold-up bicycle. He was travelling just one stop to Kilcoole.
“It is convenient,” he says.
People got off the train in significant numbers at Grand Canal Dock in Dublin city. At about 8.45am there was a great exodus of people at Pearse Street too.
Delia, who alighted at Pearse Street, wonders how much worse the commute could get before something is done.
The following day she sent a text: “The train this morning had to turn back to Wexford and was cancelled three minutes before it was scheduled to arrive [in Rathdrum].”
“They announced it on the platform and said no buses had been arranged so passengers had to arrange their own transport,” she said.
