‘A Kerryman joke’: Kerry councillor decries long walk between adjacent public transport hubs

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

A Kerry councillor has decried the “Kerryman joke” of Killarney’s bus and train stations having no direct connection, despite them being side by side.

Councillor John O’Donoghue urged at a recent Killarney Municipal District meeting that a simple solution be put in place, even suggesting a grinder be used to cut a hole in the fence towards the end of the train platform.

Google maps show the detour from train to bus station in Killarney is a five-minute walk, with walkers having to navigate the periphery of the Killarney Outlet Centre to make the transit. A slightly shorter option is to walk through the Killarney Outlet Centre.

“Having a train station and a bus station as next door neighbours but not having any means of linking the two is nothing short of a Kerryman joke,” said Cllr O’Donoghue.

“The sight of tourists being shown where one is after arriving at the other and then being told there is nothing to link the two is like something from a hidden camera show…in an age where we are constantly being told of the importance of Active Travel and making using public transport as attractive as possible, this flies in the face of that.”

He accused Irish Rail of being “borderline discriminatory” in their replies regarding the issue, which he said has become an annual motion for him.

He highlighted that the Killarney Outlet Centre had previous indicated they would be open to engaging with Irish Rail over the matter, with the prospect of opening a walkway at the end of the train platform.

While Cllr O’Donoghue claimed the solution was nearly as simple as “cutting a hole in the fence” with a grinder, Kerry County Council (KKC) advised that previous discussions with Irish Rail had foreseen “enormous” costs for such a project.

Any walkway across the tracks would need to be disability friendly and would require lifts to be installed, they said.

The NTA priced a pedestrian bridge over the railway at €5m last year, a figure which had doubled from a previous estimate in 2019.

The NTA confirmed that due to significant increases in projected costs, the project is now considered a ‘low priority’ investment and is not being progressed.

“Franz Kafka, who was no stranger to writing about the absurdities of bureaucracy, once famously said paths are made by walking,” said Cllr O’Donoghue, “I will continue to walk until we have a suitable link between the two stations.”