Improvements to Kildare and Sallins Stations

[Kilocharlie]

IE have submitted planning applications to Kildare County Council

for a development which will consist of the construction of a new pedestrian footbridge with associated stairs and ramps which will connect the two platforms at the station

at Kildare and Sallins stations.

[Mark Gleeson]

Only 5 years later than promised

As usual despite Newbridge being the busiest station on the route no sign of any progress there

[Kilocharlie]

Only Sallins is on Kildare Co Co website. At Kildare there is notice pinned to the door and was only posted yesterday. Don't know about Newbridge...

[Yello Bird]

I was over in the planing office earlier in the week on other business and had a look at the drawings for these stations, The proposed Kildare and Sallins footbridges have massive ramps on either platform they look brutal, way out of proportion in relation to the stations. Newbridge is on some kind of public display Part 8 thing if i remember correctly with a lift on one side (station building side) with an enormous ramp on the far side very ugly. I have no expertise in this but to my eyes the ramps look like a difficult way for a wheelchair user to get from one platform to the other,would lifts either side of a bridge not have been a better solution??? say like hazel hatch.

[Kilocharlie]

Anything like the ramps at CLondalkin and Kishogue?

[Mark Gleeson]

Ramps are cheaper, don't breakdown and can't be vandalised. They comply with the access regulations.

Best of all Irish Rail staff can't lock them to prevent use as the love to do elsewhere

[Kilocharlie]

Rough drawing from Kildare County Council web site. As most of the building are protected the only place to put the ramps are at the southern part of the station along side the plant shop.

Wonder if it will inclde a 'proper' entrance from the North side rather than the current style?

http://railusers.ie/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1201&stc=1&d=1279269890

[ThomasJ]

Good news for sallins
but long overdue for a station that is probably the busiest on the Kildare line.

[JPH]

Ramps are cheaper, don't breakdown and can't be vandalised. They comply with the access regulations.

Best of all Irish Rail staff can't lock them to prevent use as the love to do elsewhere

Can't agree with that at all. Isn't Sallins entitled to an ugrade to equal facilities at Monasterevan and other stations along the routes. Lifts have uses, you know. Ramps are not suitable to child buggies or wheelchair customers who are unaccompanied.

[Mark Gleeson]

Lifts in Monastervin are regularly locked

The ramps meet the standards, Northern Ireland has few if any lifts, lots of ramps, works just fine.

[ccos]

I have to say I prefer ramps when pushing d young fella around than looking for a lift and then hoping it works.
Its much quicker to use a ramp and people don´t confuse them with toilets either.

[JPH]

Lifts in Monastervin are regularly locked

The ramps meet the standards, Northern Ireland has few if any lifts, lots of ramps, works just fine.

But don't you see the point that Sallins has been short changed in terms of facilities? Ramps may meet "standards", but not every wheel chair user or parent with a buggy will appreciate that they "work just fine". If the lifts are regularly locked in monasterevan, then surely it should be dealt with and its hardly an argument against lifts in sallins. In fact its a bigger insult to sallins.
Then there's the issue of passengers with lots of baggage. Its the 21st century. Ramps may have looked great at dart stations in the 80s, but time has moved on. As for northern ireland, they didn't invest 100s of millions in their network that Im aware of.

[Mark Gleeson]

Lift reliability has been poor there has been a large number of vandalism incidents and Irish Rail do love to lock the lifts up leaving people stranded.

Sallins does have level platform access already on both sides.

The law sets out a set of standards which offer a number of different approaches to resolving the problem.

Irish Rail could learn a lot from Northern Ireland Railways, they have managed more from a passenger view point on a fraction of the budget by focusing on the simple things.

[dowlingm]

Let's rip out the elevators so there can be parity of esteem (and a fitter commuting population generally)...

[sean]

I tend to agree that ramps sound like a better idea outside of the main stations. There's an acronym for why: KIS. Keep It Simple. And when, as Mark says, there are problems with reliability, vandalism and locking, the KIS principle goes doubly.

[Kilocharlie]

Sallins does have level platform access already on both sides.



So does Newbridge but not Kildare Platform 2 unless you clamber over a narrow wicket or a 5-bar gate! Kildare badly needs better access to Platform 2 and ramps will do fine. Better still if they include platform level access to P2.

[JPH]

Let's rip out the elevators so there can be parity of esteem (and a fitter commuting population generally)...

Is not about parity of esteem or getting fit. Its commonsense. Lifts are a great idea and the issue of vandalism is an entirely different issue altogether. All new stations that I'm seeing built, have lifts. Even other station upgrades are getting lifts. Sallins isn't and its obvious that its down to budgets. Hardly fair.

Sallins does have level platform access already on both sides.


Makes no difference to the point I'm making. It was tokenism, cheap and lazy. Real 1990s thinking. Getting in on one side is easy. 9depending on where you are going) Getting out is the difficult bit as you have to negociate a steep road bridge. Yes ramps make things easier, but not for all passengers.

[Mark Gleeson]

The back gate at Kildare is suspect and to be fair most people are approaching the station from the other side

Access in Newbridge is a bit suspect on the Dublin bound side, improved considerably in recent years

[ccos]

Heres a comparison,

Whilst preparing for the sending of missions into space the Americans realised that normal pens require gravity to function. So to allow their astronauts to write in space they spent a not inconsiderable sum developing a pen that would work even in zero gravity. This pen can still be bought as a quasi novelty item today given that it can write when upside down.
The Russians when confronted with the same problem, well they just gave their cosmonauts a pencil.

Train stations aren´t bling, they´re a place to get on and off trains.

[Kilkea]

Agreed! Rather than spending crazy amounts of money on lifts which will then be vandalised, locked, used as a toilet etc etc, redirect the money to maintenance of the trains so they will actually run. Considering how worn the 22k are looking already it seems they need all the help they can get.
I do fully understand the issue with unaccompanied wheelchair users having to use the ramps, but this is what the IE staff at the station should be there to help with. If these were unmanned stations it would be a different story.

[Kilocharlie]

I do fully understand the issue with unaccompanied wheelchair users having to use the ramps, but this is what the IE staff at the station should be there to help with. If these were unmanned stations it would be a different story.

Sallins is unmanned.

[Mark Gleeson]

Sallins is unmanned.

But has level access on both sides already, so if the wheelchair passenger arrives by car they have a choice.

The ramps meet the standards required

[Kilocharlie]

But has level access on both sides already, so if the wheelchair passenger arrives by car they have a choice.

The ramps meet the standards required

But this is not an option at Kildare; road level access is only available on the down platform unless the staff unlock the 5-bar gate to the up platform and even then there is no provision for parking on that side. Of all the busy stations on this line, Kildare needs the improvement most. Should have been done years ago.

[Mark Gleeson]

Newbridge is the busiest by a fair margin, no action there

[Colm Moore]

I do fully understand the issue with unaccompanied wheelchair users having to use the ramps, but this is what the IE staff at the station should be there to help with. If these were unmanned stations it would be a different story.Many stations will (apparently) only have one member of staff on duty at a time and will typically be needed in the ticket office.

[Kilocharlie]

The back gate at Kildare is suspect and to be fair most people are approaching the station from the other side

Access in Newbridge is a bit suspect on the Dublin bound side, improved considerably in recent years

A new car park was opened recently on the Dublin bound side at Newbridge so access should be OK now.

Of all the stations, busy or otherwise, on this route, Kildare has by far the worst access to the Dublin bound platform. Anyone with a pushchair or bike has to carry these over the ancient, stone-stepped, uncovered and often slippery footbridge. A wheelchir user, without someone to drive them, would find it very difficult as there is no parking other than drop-off on the Dublin side. They would also have to wait for staff to open the gate.

[Kilocharlie]

Builders moved on-site, platform 2, a few weeks ago in Kildare to being prep-work. Planning delayed due to question from County Council regarding provision of lifts as they question the length of the ramps.

In the meantime, a notice has appeared at the station warning that there is no wheelchair access to Platform 2.