South Western Commuter
Rail · diesel commuter · 14 stations · Dublin Heuston – Grand Canal Dock
About the South Western Commuter
The South Western Commuter is an Iarnód Éireann commuter line: diesel trains on the national railway, not a metro and not a tram. It is one of the seven routes on the operator’s own Dublin City and Commuter Zone map.
Its full name is South Western Commuter line (Kildare line).
The South Western Commuter is the newest of Dublin’s commuter lines and the only one with two completely different city ends. From Kildare and Newbridge the trains run in along the Cork main line to Dublin Heuston; a second group turns off at Hazelhatch and Celbridge and takes the Phoenix Park Tunnel through Drumcondra and Dublin Connolly to Grand Canal Dock. Fourteen stations in all. Kildare to Heuston is scheduled at 42 minutes, Hazelhatch to Grand Canal Dock at 38. The line shares its tracks with the InterCity services for Cork and the west, so only a fraction of the trains that pass these platforms actually stop at them.
Stations on the South Western Commuter
14 stations in running order, 6 of them an interchange.
Hazelhatch and Celbridge to Grand Canal Dock
Main route, 10 stations
Branch from Kildare
Rejoins at Hazelhatch and Celbridge
Branch to Dublin Heuston
Leaves the main route after Park West and Cherry Orchard
A ring on the dot marks a station where you can change line, either on the spot or by a short walk to a separate station. The small name under each one is its official Irish name.
Timetable and frequency
| Day | First – last | Trains a day | Timetable date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon–Thu | 05:45 – 00:11 | 142 | 2026-11-18 |
| Friday | 05:45 – 00:11 | 144 | 2026-11-20 |
| Saturday | 05:52 – 23:51 | 65 | 2026-11-21 |
| Sunday | 08:00 – 21:31 | 47 | 2026-11-22 |
| Bank holiday | 05:52 – 23:09 | 41 | 2026-10-26 |
| Whole route | Scheduled time |
|---|---|
| Kildare – Dublin Heuston | 42 min |
| Hazelhatch and Celbridge – Grand Canal Dock | 38 min |
First and last departure anywhere on the line, from the NTA’s published timetable for a representative week. Nothing on this line runs through the night.
How often trains run
| Time of day | Departures | Typical gap | Longest gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 07:00 | 5 | every 8 min | 13 min |
| Morning peak 07:00–10:00 | 13 | every 12 min | 26 min |
| Midday 10:00–16:00 | 19 | every 22 min | 34 min |
| Evening peak 16:00–19:00 | 8 | every 25 min | 40 min |
| Evening 19:00–22:00 | 8 | every 30 min | 46 min |
| After 22:00 | 1 | — | — |
Departures in one direction at Hazelhatch and Celbridge, the busiest stop on the line, on a Monday to Thursday. Other stops are quieter; the branches are served by part of the service only.
Things to know before you travel
- Two routes meet at Hazelhatch and Celbridge: Kildare – Dublin Heuston and Hazelhatch and Celbridge – Grand Canal Dock, the latter running through the city on the DART line via Drumcondra and Connolly.
Where you can change
In Dublin a change between tram and train is a walk along the street: the Luas stop and the railway station are different places with different names.
| Stop | Other lines here | On foot to |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin Heuston | — | Heuston (2 min walk); Museum (12 min walk) |
| Drumcondra | Western | — |
| Dublin Connolly | DART Northern South Eastern Western | Connolly (2 min walk); Busáras (4 min walk) |
| Tara Street | DART Northern South Eastern | Abbey Street (4 min walk); Marlborough (5 min walk); Trinity (6 min walk) |
| Dublin Pearse | DART Northern South Eastern | Dawson (7 min walk); St. Stephen's Green (11 min walk) |
| Grand Canal Dock | DART South Eastern | — |
History
The service began life under the name Arrow, running no further out than Kildare, and it was extended in January 2013 to reach commuter towns beyond the county and a new terminus outside the Dublin zone. Its real transformation, though, was physical. The Kildare Route Project widened the line out of Heuston to four tracks, separating the stopping trains from the InterCity services that use the same corridor, and it brought a run of new stations with it: Adamstown, built and paid for by private developers, Clondalkin and Fonthill and Park West and Cherry Orchard, each replacing an older station nearby.
Kishoge belongs to the same programme but took far longer: it was built with the rest and then stood finished and closed for fifteen years, waiting for the housing around it. The opening of the Phoenix Park Tunnel to regular passenger trains gave the line its second city route, and with it the only commuter service in Dublin that runs from one main line to another across the top of the city. Hazelhatch and Celbridge was rebuilt in the same programme, gaining three more platforms and lifts while its original waiting rooms were kept.
The service
There are 142 trips on a Monday to Thursday and 144 on a Friday, the first at 05:45 and the last at 00:11. Weekends are much lighter: 65 on Saturday, and 47 on Sunday, when the last train of the day goes at 21:31 — earlier than on any other line here. Hazelhatch and Celbridge is the pivot of the timetable, with the heaviest service on the line and a terminal platform for trains turning back from Grand Canal Dock. Between Hazelhatch and Park West and Cherry Orchard both groups of trains call at the same stations, so those stops do better than the pattern suggests.
The trams and trains
The line is worked by 22000 Class diesel railcars. They share the Dublin to Cork main line, the busiest InterCity route in the country, which is why a departure board at Kildare shows far more long-distance trains than commuter ones — services for Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Tralee all pass through. The four-tracking out of Heuston was done precisely so that the stopping trains and the expresses would no longer get in each other’s way.
Frequently asked questions
The line has two city ends. Trains from Kildare and Newbridge run into Heuston. A second group leaves the main line and uses the Phoenix Park Tunnel to reach Drumcondra, Dublin Connolly, Tara Street, Dublin Pearse and Grand Canal Dock. Check which one you are boarding — they serve completely different parts of the city.
The earlier brand name for this commuter service, when it ran only as far as Kildare. The name has gone, and in January 2013 the service itself was extended further out to towns beyond the Dublin commuter zone.
It runs over it but is a separate service. The commuter trains use the slow lines of the Cork main line and call at local stations; the InterCity trains for Cork and the west use the fast lines and run straight through. That is why some platforms here never see a scheduled train stop.