Irish Rail to look at station access at Greystones
Irish Rail said that it is aware that there is a wish from the public for access to the train station to remain on the main street in Greystones and will try to achieve that.
Minister Simon Harris met Irish Rail representatives last week to discuss the train station with them. The station building has been advertised To Let, with plans to create unmanned access to the platform.
‘I am extraordinarily worried about these plans from Irish Rail. They seem nonsensical, ludicrous and, quite frankly, ignorant of the reality in terms of how our town operates,’ said Minister Harris. ‘ They would significantly alter footfall and traffic flow on our main street, causing inconvenience for commuters, difficulties for businesses and real, legitimate concerns for vulnerable users and for people with disabilities.
‘I have worked very closely with commuters in the town through a petition campaign I have launched and indeed with the business community. I was very pleased this week to meet with Irish Rail to hand over to them many many petitions from Greystones commuters outlining their concerns and also to hand over to them letters of concern from business owners in the town expressing the impact that any such change would have on their business.’
He said that Irish Rail undertook to take all of this on board and to visit Greystones to meet business owners.
‘With the introduction of Leap Card, and the installation of ticket vending machines, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of customers buying tickets directly from the staffed booking office,’ said Barry Kenny of Irish Rail. ‘So far in 2017, little over six per cent of ticket sales from DART and Greater Dublin area stations have been from the booking office.
‘Iarnród Éireann must recognise and respond to these trends, where, through no fault of their own, staff in ticket offices have less throughput of customers purchasing tickets. At the same time, the company recognises it must improve the resourcing of customer service assistance to the mobility-impaired,’ said Mr Kenny. ‘ That is why the company is reviewing staffing at stations to put greater emphasis on customer assistance. For DART, the company intends to move from a situation where many stations have irregular staffing patterns to having a network of hub stations which will always be staffed. From these, employees focus will be on customer assistance, and will be able to more quickly respond to assist customers in other stations who require mobility assistance. This will underpin the company’s pilot programme to dramatically reduce advised notice time to four hours to guarantee assistance, and indeed to continue to ensure assistance can be provided with minimal or no notice wherever possible.’
He said that they have decided to assess commercial interest in the ground floor of Greystones station.
‘Whilst seeking expressions of interest, there has been no change to any arrangements including staffing on how the station functions.
‘We will be in a position early next year to assess the degree of commercial interest in the station building which will enable us to make a decision on its future use, in tandem with reviewing staffing.
‘Customer needs will be taken into consideration should there be any change. We have committed to Minister Harris that we will engage with businesses in Greystones to understand their concerns. We recognise the wish that there be a continued direct access from the main street whatever decision is ultimately made, and will examine options to achieve this.’