Western Commuter
Rail · diesel commuter · 18 stations · Docklands – Dublin Connolly
About the Western Commuter
The 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 Western Commuter line (Maynooth / M3 Parkway).
The Western Commuter is the service out of Dublin along the old Midland Great Western route, and it is really two lines that share a middle section. One runs from Enfield and Maynooth into Dublin Connolly; the other comes down the reopened Dunboyne branch from M3 Parkway to the terminus at Docklands. They meet at Clonsilla, which is why that unremarkable suburban station matters more than its size suggests. There are 18 stations in all, spread across Dublin, Kildare and Meath. End to end, M3 Parkway to Docklands is scheduled at 34 minutes and Enfield to Dublin Connolly at 54.
Stations on the Western Commuter
18 stations in running order, 4 of them an interchange.
Enfield to Dublin Connolly
Main route, 14 stations
Branch from M3 Parkway
Rejoins at Clonsilla
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 | 05:20 – 00:05 | 143 | 2026-11-18 |
| Friday | 05:20 – 00:05 | 143 | 2026-11-20 |
| Saturday | 05:58 – 00:04 | 112 | 2026-11-21 |
| Sunday | 08:07 – 00:05 | 91 | 2026-11-22 |
| Bank holiday | 08:07 – 00:05 | 91 | 2026-10-26 |
| Whole route | Scheduled time |
|---|---|
| M3 Parkway – Docklands | 34 min |
| Enfield – Dublin Connolly | 54 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 | 2 | every 20 min | 20 min |
| Morning peak 07:00–10:00 | 17 | every 9 min | 21 min |
| Midday 10:00–16:00 | 14 | every 28 min | 31 min |
| Evening peak 16:00–19:00 | 14 | every 11 min | 36 min |
| Evening 19:00–22:00 | 13 | every 16 min | 54 min |
| After 22:00 | 1 | — | — |
Departures in one direction at Broombridge, 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 Clonsilla: M3 Parkway – Docklands and Enfield/Maynooth – Dublin Connolly. Docklands is a terminus served only by the M3 Parkway route.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Broombridge | — | Broombridge (2 min walk) |
| Docklands | — | Spencer Dock (6 min walk) |
| Drumcondra | South Western | — |
| Dublin Connolly | DART Northern South Eastern South Western | Connolly (2 min walk); Busáras (4 min walk) |
History
Commuter trains on this corridor are more recent than the railway by well over a century. A limited service began in November 1981 with just four stations — Clonsilla, Maynooth, the station then called simply Leixlip and now Leixlip (Louisa Bridge), and Ashtown, which opened in January 1982 — and ran in that form until 1990. That year brought a substantial expansion, with four new stations opening together at Broombridge, Castleknock, Coolmine and Leixlip (Confey).
Drumcondra, closed since 1910, was reopened in March 1998 and gave the line a second city route. The branch from Clonsilla towards Dunboyne, lifted decades earlier, was later rebuilt and reopened with new stations at Dunboyne, Hansfield and M3 Parkway, and Pelletstown was inserted between existing stations more recently still. The branch towards Dunboyne had been out of use for decades and was relaid as the first stage of a plan to carry the railway on to Navan; that second stage has not been built. The underlying railway, the Dublin to Sligo line, remains double track only as far as Maynooth and single with passing loops beyond it, and carried 1.4 million passengers over its whole length in 2018.
The service
The timetable has 143 trips on a Monday to Thursday, the first at 05:20 and the last at 00:05, with 112 on Saturday, from 05:58, and 91 on Sunday, from 08:07. The two branches are not equal. The Maynooth route runs seven days a week into Dublin Connolly; the Dunboyne branch has direct trains to Docklands only at weekday peaks, and at all other times — including the whole weekend — it is worked as a shuttle, so passengers for the city change at Clonsilla. Docklands itself is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. West of Maynooth the service thins out to a handful of trains towards Kilcock and Enfield.
The trams and trains
The line is worked by 29000 Class and 22000 Class diesel railcars; none of it is electrified. The same tracks carry the Sligo InterCity services, which call at some of these stations and run past the rest, so not every train that passes a platform is going to stop at it. Beyond Maynooth the railway narrows to a single track with passing loops, and that, rather than any shortage of trains, is what caps the frequency at the western end of the line.
Frequently asked questions
Outside weekday peak hours the Dunboyne branch is run as a shuttle between Clonsilla and M3 Parkway rather than through to the city. At Clonsilla you cross to a Maynooth to Dublin Connolly service. At peaks there are direct trains between the branch and Docklands.
No. Its only trains are the peak-hour services on the M3 Parkway branch, which run Monday to Friday, so the station closes on Saturdays and Sundays. For a seven-day journey from the branch, change at Clonsilla and use Dublin Connolly instead.
One runs west through Maynooth to Kilcock and Enfield, ending at Dublin Connolly in the city. The other turns north-west at Clonsilla for Hansfield, Dunboyne and M3 Parkway, with Docklands as its city terminus. Everything between Clonsilla and Broombridge is shared by both.