Over the weekend of Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th August the Pope visited Ireland. For this event a number of special services operated for Events in Croke Park, Knock (near Claremorris) and the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
In contrast to the visit of Pope John Paul to Ireland in 1979, the majority of scheduled services continued to operate, whereas in 1979 all scheduled bus and rail services were cancelled with all resources used in providing special train & buses to the events in Dublin and elsewhere.
Notwithstanding the changing times in Ireland over the last 39 years the railway company still provided several Intercity Specials to Dublin for the Papal Mass in the Phoenix Park on the Sunday in addition to the regular scheduled morning services.
In Dublin area itself, the Kildare/Portlaoise commuter service had additional capacity with 3 specials each from Portlaoise and Kildare to supplement the regular scheduled service, which was strengthened from the usual 3ICR to 2X3ICR. On the Connolly side special timetables operated all day on the DART, Northern, Maynooth & M3 Parkway Commuter routes, the highlight being a 10 minute frequency between Connolly and Clonsilla on the Maynooth/M3 Parkway route as Ashtown Station is only a few minutes’ walk from the Phoenix Park.
Listed below are the services which operated for the events across the country. Specials on Sunday for the DART, Northern, Maynooth & M3 Parkway Commuter routes are not listed as a special timetable was in force on these routes.
Saturday 25th August 2018:
FESTIVAL OF FAMILIES @ CROKE PARK
23.00 DUBLIN HEUSTON/GALWAY 3 ICR
23.15 DUBLIN HEUSTON/CORK 8 MKIV
00.50 LIMERICK JCTN./LIMERICK 3 ICR
23.20 DUBLIN CONNOLLY/BELFAST CENTRAL 6 x C3K
15.10 MAYNOOTH/DUBLIN CONNOLLY 8 x 29000
21.00 DRUMCONDRA/MAYNOOTH 8 x 29000
12.55 LONGFORD/DUBLIN CONNOLLY 8 x 29000
21.50 DRUMCONDRA/LONGFORD 4 x 29000
16.15 MAYNOOTH/DUBLIN CONNOLLY 4 x 29000
21.10 DRUMCONDRA/MAYNOOTH 8 x 29000
21.35 DRUMCONDRA/MAYNOOTH 8 x 29000
22.05 DRUMCONDRA/MAYNOOTH 8 x 29000
Sunday 26th August 2018:
THE PAPAL VISIT 2018 @ KNOCK
06.00 ATHLONE/CLAREMORRIS 4 ICR
13.35 CLAREMORRIS/ATHLONE 4 ICR
06.10 WESTPORT/CLAREMORRIS 3&4 ICR
14.00 CLAREMORRIS/WESTPORT 3&4 ICR
06.00 BALLINA/MANULLA JCTN. 2 x 2800
THE PAPAL VISIT 2018 @ THE PHOENIX PARK
Heuston services
07.15 CORK/DUBLIN HEUSTON 8 MKIV
19.25 DUBLIN HEUSTON/CORK 8 MKIV
07.25 LIMERICK/DUBLIN HEUSTON 5&3 ICR
20.00 DUBLIN HEUSTON/LIMERICK 3 ICR
07.15 WATERFORD/DUBLIN HEUSTON 2X3 ICR
19.40 DUBLIN HEUSTON/WATERFORD 2X3 ICR
07.10 GALWAY/DUBLIN HEUSTON 3&4 ICR
19.15 DUBLIN HEUSTON/GALWAY 3&4 ICR
07.40 GALWAY/DUBLIN HEUSTON 5 ICR
19.50 DUBLIN HEUSTON/GALWAY 4 ICR
21.30 DUBLIN HEUSTON/ATHLONE 4 ICR
07.57 PORTLAOISE/DUBLIN HEUSTON 3&4 ICR
18.10 DUBLIN HEUSTON/PORTLAOISE 3&4 ICR
08.20 PORTLAOISE/DUBLIN HEUSTON 2X3 ICR
19.35 DUBLIN HEUSTON/PORTLAOISE 4 ICR
10.18 PORTLAOISE/DUBLIN HEUSTON 3&4 ICR
20.10 DUBLIN HEUSTON/PORTLAOISE 5 ICR
20.45 DUBLIN HEUSTON/PORTLAOISE 3&4 ICR
21.45 DUBLIN HEUSTON/PORTLAOISE 5 ICR
07.45 KILDARE/DUBLIN HEUSTON 5 ICR
09.20 KILDARE/DUBLIN HEUSTON 5 ICR
18.50 DUBLIN HEUSTON/KILDARE 5 ICR
10.55 KILDARE/DUBLIN HEUSTON 5 ICR
07.10 TRALEE/CORK 5 ICR is extended through to Heuston
Connolly Services
06.05 BELFAST CENTRAL/DUBLIN CONNOLLY 6 x C3K
20.55 DUBLIN CONNOLLY/BELFAST CENTRAL 6 x C3K
06.20 BELFAST CENTRAL/DUBLIN CONNOLLY 6 x C3K
22.10 DUBLIN CONNOLLY/BELFAST CENTRAL 6 x C3K
05.40 DERRY/DUBLIN CONNOLLY 6 C3K
21.50 DUBLIN CONNOLLY/DERRY 6 C3K
06.55 SLIGO/DUBLIN CONNOLLY 4 ICR
18.30 DUBLIN CONNOLLY/SLIGO 4 ICR
07.20 ROSSLARE EUROPORT/DUBLIN CONNOLLY 4 x 29000
19.42 DUBLIN CONNOLLY/ROSSLARE EUROPORT 4 x 29000
For the weekend, I was in the Portlaoise area and popped over to the station on Sunday morning to see the 3 additional special services depart from the station, plus photographing the Limerick, Cork and Tralee specials passing through.
Click
https://goo.gl/Xxpd8w to view.