Glounthaune railway station

Glounthaune Gleanntán
View of the track and station building looking west towards Cork city
General information
Location	Glounthaune County Cork T45 PN82 Ireland
Coordinates	51°54′40″N 8°19′30″W
Owned by	Iarnród Éireann
Operated by	Iarnród Éireann
Line(s)	Cork–Cobh Cork–Midleton
Platforms	2
Tracks	2
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
Parking	Yes
Accessible	Limited
Other information
Station code	GHANE (380)
History
Opened	10 November 1859 (1859-11-10)
Original company	Cork and Youghal Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Southern and Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Southern Railways
Location

v t e Mallow-Youghal/ Cobh railway line
Dublin to Cork mainline Mallow-Waterford line (closed) Mallow Mallow–Tralee line Mourne Abbey (closed) Rathduff (closed) Blarney (closed) Cork Kent Tivoli (closed) Dunkettle (closed) Little Island Glounthaune Carrigtwohill Midleton Mogeely (closed) Killeagh (closed) Youghal (closed) Fota Carrigaloe Rushbrooke Cobh

Glounthaune railway station (Irish: Gleanntán) is an Iarnród Éireann station serving the town of Glounthaune in County Cork, Ireland. The station is at is the junction between Cobh and Midleton on the Cork Commuter line.^[1]

History

The station opened on 10 November 1859 by the Cork, Youghal & Queenstown Railway,^[2] with services initially only running onwards to Youghal. On 10 March 1862, passenger services began running to Cobh from the junction as well. The line onward to Midleton and Youghal closed to passenger services in 1963^[3] before re-opening again in August 2009 as far as Midleton^[4] The station was originally named "Queenstown Junction" and was renamed first "Cobh Junction" in 1928, and finally "Glounthaune" in 1994;^[5] tickets issued from Iarnród Éireann portable ticket machines still print the station name as "Cobh Jct".

Services

The station is unstaffed, with two ticket machines near the entrance in the carpark and two leap card validators (one at the entrance and the other on the platform). There are two platforms serving the double track. Platform 1 is on the near side and is fully wheelchair accessible with eastbound trains from Cork to Cobh and Midleton. There is a footbridge to bring passengers from platform 1 to platform 2 meaning there is no wheelchair access to platform 2 and the westbound trains running to Little Island and Cork city. As of 2020, Cork County Council published plans to add more parking spaces (48 as of January 2020) and to improve accessibility to bicycles and improve onward bus connections in the 2020s.^[6]

With around 40 trains per day in each direction, this is a frequent commuter station with four trains per hour running into Cork city at peak time on weekdays and twice per hour (1 from Cobh and 1 from Midleton) off peak. Travel time to Cork:11 minutes, Midleton:13 minutes and Cobh:14 minutes.^[7] The station is usually served by IE 2600 Class diesel trains in 2 or 4 carriage setups.^{[citation needed]}

Under the Cork metropolitan area transport strategy, published in 2019, it was planned to increase services to the station and potentially electrify the line by approximately 2040.^[8]

Gallery

• 
  Glounthaune railway station in 2008 before the Midleton line was reopened
• 
  Cobh Junction in 1973 with the line to Youghal on the left.

References

1. "Printable Timetables". Irish Rail. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2012.^{[full citation needed]}
2. "6. On Track, Cork & its Railway Heritage | Cork Heritage". corkheritage.ie. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
3. "Bring back the old Youghal railway". Echo Live. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
4. "Service begins on Cork-Midleton line". rte.ie. 30 July 2009.
5. "Cobh Junction" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
6. "Strategic Cycleway Scheme, Bury's Bridge to Carrigtwohill" (PDF). January 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 February 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
7. "Train Timetables by Station". irishrail.ie. Irish Rail. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
8. "CMATS - Cork Metropolitan Area Draft Transport Strategy 2040". Cork Chamber - Advancing Business Together. 15 May 2019. Archived from the original on 19 January 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2020.

External links

• Glounthane Station on IrishRail.ie Archived 20 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine

Preceding station	Iarnród Éireann			Following station
Little Island		Commuter Cork-Cobh		Fota
		Commuter Cork-Midleton		Carrigtwohill