A €10 million train station in west Dublin finally opened this morning more than three years after it was built.
Hansfield Station in Ongar, Dublin 15, was built on the Dublin to M3 Parkway rail line in 2010, but could not be used because an access road was not completed.
The company that built the station was unable to complete the road because of financial difficulties.
Work to finish the road started last November after agreement was reached between Fingal County Council, the National Transport Authority and Irish Rail.
Minister for Transport Leo Varadker and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, both of whom share the Dublin West constituency officially opened the station today.
“The days of watching the trains passing Hansfield Station without stopping are thankfully now over,” said Mr Varadker.
Mr Varadker admitted the station had been beset by difficulties. “It’s been a bumpy road and a bit of a fiasco really,” said Mr Varadker.
“The train station was built by the developers of that area and after the economy crashed the developers went into financial difficulty – they were supposed to build the road.”
“We had to negotiate with receivers to buy the land, which was in different parcels and change the development plan for the area to facilitate the train station and the car park being built in the way that it is.” Mr Varadker went on to describe the station’s opening as “another example of cleaning up the mess that the country is in,” Mr Varadkar told RTE’s Morning Ireland.
Local Socialist Party councillor Ruth Coppinger said local residents should take credit for the station’s opening, not the Government.
“It was primarily the campaigning of local residents two years ago which forced this issue onto the agenda. The station had lain idle for a year without much comment from leading politicians and it will be nauseating if they now try to make political gain from it,” she said.
The journey time from Hansfield to the Dublin Docklands will take 25 minutes during peak times with a service in each direction every 30 minutes.