Minister Darragh O’Brien confirms redevelopment of Ceannt Station

A development project to expand and modernise Galway’s Ceannt Station is now underway, with plans to increase the number of platforms from two to five.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien met with Mayor of Galway, Eddie Hoare, and representatives from Iarnród Éireann and construction company BAM Ireland on Monday to discuss plans for the construction of the new platforms and features at Ceannt Station.

At this meeting the Minister said, “The redevelopment at Ceannt Station will deliver an integrated transport hub in the heart of Galway City Centre.

“[It] will cater for the anticipated increased demand into the future, support the implementation of the recommendations of the National Rail Review and facilitate more compact and sustainable population growth within Galway City.”

Improvements and Funding

Other planned improvements include the construction of a new roof and entrance, as well as the implementation of retail units, customer waiting rooms and toilets.

The €70m project is funded in part by the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), a government fund created to support compact and sustainable development projects in Ireland’s major cities and large towns. 

The URDF is allocating over €20m to the Ceannt Station redevelopment.

Commuter Tracks

The Mayor described the difficulties of having a station with such a low capacity for commuters, saying, “at the moment … if you want to go from Galway to Oranmore you have to pop on the Dublin train, which, they don’t run that frequently.

“Under the new Ceannt Station development there’ll be a double track, a commuter track to Oranmore and hopefully, in time, to Athenry.”

The train from Dublin runs hourly between 8am and 10pm. The Mayor believes that a more frequent service would encourage commuters to take the train rather than contributing to the large number of commuter cars on the road every day.

“It’s the culture shift of getting people out of their cars and maybe onto public transport,” he said. “[It] will open up so much more capacity, with the five platforms for people to be able to use it as a commuter rail service rather than just hopping on a long term journey that doesn’t run regularly.”

Construction should begin as soon as possible with the bulk of the project set to be completed by the middle of 2026.