Askeaton railway station
Encyclopedia
History
The station was opened by the Waterford and Limerick and Limerick and Foynes railways, then absorbed into the Great Southern and Western RailwayGreat Southern and Western Railway
The Great Southern and Western Railway was the largest Irish gauge railway company in Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
. In 1924 the Railways Act passed by the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State
Oireachtas of the Irish Free State
The Oireachtas of the Irish Free State was the legislature of the Irish Free State from 1922 until 1937. It was established by the 1922 Constitution of Ireland which was based from the Anglo-Irish Treaty...
moved the station to the Great Southern Railway. In 1925 another merger led to management by the Great Southern Railways. Then it was moved to the CIE
Córas Iompair Éireann
Córas Iompair Éireann , or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of the Irish state, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport in the Republic of Ireland and, jointly with its Northern Ireland counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, between the...
by the Transport Act 1944 from 1 January 1945, on nationalisation. The station was closed to passenger traffic by CIE
Córas Iompair Éireann
Córas Iompair Éireann , or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of the Irish state, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport in the Republic of Ireland and, jointly with its Northern Ireland counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, between the...
on 4 February 1963 and freight on 2 December 1974.[1] Trains for Foynes continued to pass through Askeaton until the line effectively lost all its freight services in 2000. The line is still officially open to freight traffic, it has not seen a train since the annual weedspray train visited the line on 7 May 2002. The last known movement was on 9 January 2003 when a permanent way inspection car visited the line.
In an interview on Limerick's Live 95 fm on April 18, 2011, Kay McGuinness Chairperson of Shannon Foynes Port Company said that they are confident that the rail link could be reopened for €7 million, which was considerably less than initially quoted price of €30 million by Irish Rail following the involvement of consultants and it was now a do-able project.