*Ennis Station.
NO PLANS are in place to increase the amount of staff at Ennis Train Station, the CEO of Iarnród Éireann has confirmed.
Elected representatives in the town of Ennis including Cllr Mary Howard (FG) have been vocal in their criticism over how the station has negatively impacted on rankings for the county town from IBAL and in the Tidy Towns.
Cllr Howard previously warned that Ennis Station was a “hotspot of anti-social behaviour” which was not helped by the lack of staff.
Bus Éireann in response to a parliamentary question from former TD, Michael McNamara (IND) in October 2021 said they were not planning on increasing their staff count in Ennis. “There are no current plans to allocate staff to the station. Bus Éireann, is currently working on a nationwide upgrade to all our information displays in stations including Ennis, funded by the National Transport Authority (NTA). Customers in Ennis can purchase tickets from the automatic ticket machine situated in the bus station and from the driver on board the bus”.
CEO of Iarnród Éireann, Jim Meade told The Clare Echo they did not foresee bringing in more employees at the station. “We have staff in Ennis and man it while the trains are running, we have staff on-site, I know some of the bus side isn’t manned but it is about creating the environment and methodologies for people to self-serve and have a seamless journey and transition and indeed making the station totally accessible and doing those improvements that really make it a good place to visit and a good experience when you interchange with the various modes of transport, headed rail is the backbone of public transport but the whole transport family works together be it headed rail, light rail, the local link services and Bus Éireann services in Clare or as you go to the capital the Luas and Dublin Bus, it is the transport family interacting well and providing that complete service”.
When questioned on the negative impact the station has had on rankings for Ennis in IBAL surveys and the Tidy Towns adjudication process, Meade responded, “Right across the network we’ve 146 stations, we have a rolling programme of improving stations and investing in stations, we’ve done some investment in Ennis and we’ll do more in the future, by way of example, over the past six months Limerick station is a completely transformed station from what it was, we have a complete new bus step with 21 new bus bays, we’ve doubled the size of the concourse, it is a bright station and the platforms have all been renewed, it is a nice environment to even go and meet somebody even if you’re not travelling, it is a proper transport interchange hub, we are doing that, at the other end of the Mid-West region in Galway we’re out on the ground with a new station there, it was a one and a half platform dark station, it will now be a five platform station futureproofed glazed roof, a really modern station.
“We’ve done some work in Ennis already, we’ve relaid the platforms last year, we’ve put in lifts and footbridges to make it accessible to everybody, there is a constant programming of upgrades taking place but we will take the comments from the briefing on board and do whatever improvements we need to do”.
