What’s the plan for the roll-out of Spencer Dock’s new Dart line?

On Wednesday about lunchtime at Spencer Dock Park, a group of food trucks parked up and mobbed by hungry customers ordering  burritos, barbecue, and brunch.

Nearby, Luas Red Line trams pulled into and out of their Spencer Dock station. Across the tracks, a grey hoarding surrounds a vacant lot. 

From there, a wasteland stretches north for about 350 metres, a kind of canyon with shiny multi-story complexes rising on either side.

Then it passes under Sheriff Street Upper – not far from the existing Docklands train station – and runs into a rail line near older, lower-rise neighbourhoods around Blythe Avenue and Church Road.

At a meeting of the council’s Central Area Committee on 18 March, an Irish Rail programme manager gave a presentation on plans that would involve running a railway line through this wasteland canyon.

As well as building a new “landmark” Spencer Dock Dart station on the vacant site surrounded by grey hoardings by the Luas station. And then decommissioning the existing Docklands train station.

Any office workers who were lunching at the food trucks in the park on Wednesday, would, once they finish their workday, be able to catch the Dart from the new station. 

There’d be up to 12 trains an hour, which would take them out to the M3 Parkway park and ride in Dunboyne, County Meath – or to Maynooth, said Ricardo Santos, of Irish Rail, at the meeting. 

This is all part of Irish Rail’s Dart+ West plan, which An Coimisiún Pleanála approved in 2024 – and procurement for a design-build contract is underway.  

Two judicial reviews lodged in June 2025 have been withdrawn, said the presentation.  “Enabling works” have begun on the project, Jane Cregan, deputy communications manager at Irish Rail, said in February.

At the committee meeting, some councillors welcomed the new train line, but several said residents who live very close to the line have concerns about the noise from additional trains and the impact of the new barriers. 

The Dart+ West project

The plan is for Dart+ West to run from the new station at Spencer Dock to Cabra, Ashtown and Castleknock, shows a map on the Irish Rail website. 

The line splits at Clonsilla, with some trains heading to Leixlip and Maynooth and others heading to Dunboyne and the M3Parkway. 

Trains will leave to go west every five minutes at rush hour, said Santos, the programme manager at Irish Rail.

To run more trains and reduce the environmental impact Irish Rail plans to electrify the existing train line, Santos said. 

“Electric vehicles pollute less, have greater acceleration and braking capacity, so we can have more trains per hour per direction, in each section of the rail corridor,” he said. 

The plans include upgrading Connolly Station, rebuilding bridges, removing six level crossings, and installing safety barriers, he said. 

Irish Rail plans to tender for contractors to design and build the station and railway line, with procurement set to kick off later this year, and builders on site by 2028, said Santos. 

Santos said that Irish Rail has written to 2,200 residents in North Strand and Spencer Dock who live close to the line to inform them of the planned construction. 

Public consultation sessions have already kicked off, with a meeting in Ballybough on 11 March. Community liaison officers are in place, and more meetings will be held in the coming months, he said. 

Irish Rail will write to any landowners from whom they intend to compulsorily purchase land, said Santos at the meeting. Those people should seek legal advice, he said. 

Impact on residents

This plan "moves the station closer to the heart of the Docklands”, said Green Party Councillor Janet Horner, and she welcomed the fact that it will run more often, at the committee meeting.

But Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis said that some people’s houses are very close to the train line and could almost touch it from their windows, so they are worried about noise and privacy. 

There are currently four freight trains a day, said Ennis, so trains running every five minutes at peak hours and averaging 12 trains per hour is a very significant change. The project will devalue some homes in the area, he said.  

Santos said he doesn’t think that any property would be devalued. 

There will be more noise per hour, particularly during rush hours, said Santos, but the new noise barriers will mitigate that, he said. 

“But if we replace five diesel trains with 10 electric trains and install noise barriers that currently do not exist, we are fully convinced that we are giving the residents better conditions than what they have currently,” he said. 

Independent Councillor Christy Burke said residents on Ossory Road are primarily concerned about the visual impact of the barriers outside their homes. 

“When the residents come out their door, they will look at barriers,” he said, “which will resemble prison.”

Ennis said residents want to see computer-generated images of what the barriers will look like in relation to their homes. 

Santos said Irish Rail has no choice about erecting 1.8 metre-high safety barriers because they are a legal requirement. Barriers can be see-through but are a necessary safety feature for all electric train tracks, he said. 

“We can design the barriers, whether noise barriers or safety barriers, to the satisfaction of residents.”

But he warned that Irish Rail also has to install the noise barriers, which he said would be 3.5m high. 

“The need to apply noise reduction measures is non-negotiable either because we have railway order conditions,” said Santos. “We can combine the functionality of the barrier and refine aesthetic aspects so the nuisance to the residents is as little as possible.”

Horner, the Green Party councillor, said that some residents are also concerned about noise disruption from construction work.

Santos says there are regulations for construction noise, and Irish Rail will make sure that contractors mitigate that as much as possible. “We will do everything we can to reduce nightwork, use noise blankets, mufflers,” he says.

However, his presentation notes that “There are no statutory noise or vibration limit values in Ireland for construction works or for environmental noise during the operational phase”.