IRISH RAIL IS set to add an extra commuter morning service between Drogheda and Dublin from next week.

The new service has been approved by the National Transport Authority and will commence from Monday 20 April.

The new 6.05am Drogheda to Dublin Connolly limited commuter service will serve Balbriggan, Skerries, Rush and Lusk, Donabate and Malahide stations en route to arriving in Dublin Connolly for 7.09am.

Irish Rail said the additional service will be a six-carriage train and that it will utilise the train set which then operates the 7.40am Dublin Connolly to Belfast Grand Central service. 

It will bring the number of trains departing Drogheda in the morning peak with a pre-9am city centre arrival to ten, while twelve will have a pre-9.30am arrival.

Irish Rail noted that the new service follows recent engagement with the Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien, the National Transport Authority, transport agencies and other stakeholders to identify “additional measures to boost public transport capacity or ease congestion”.

Last month, The Journal heard from readers who described their Irish Rail journeys as “packed, sweaty and unsafe”.

Readers added that overcrowding, overheating, fainting and being forced to stand for over an hour are just some of the issues they are now encountering on their daily commutes.

Meanwhile, Irish Rail remarked that the new service “comes at a time of record demand on the rail network”.

A total of 55 million journeys were made across Irish Rail services last year, including 4.65 million journeys on the Northern Commuter route.

Irish Rail added that the new service also comes ahead of next year’s introduction of the new battery-electric DART fleet on the Drogheda to Dublin Northern Commuter route. 

The new DART fleet will begin entering service in the first half of 2027 and will replace existing Intercity and Commuter trains on the Northern Commuter route. 

Irish Rail said this will add capacity between Drogheda and Dublin Connolly by providing longer trains on a number of services, and will also allow the Intercity and Commuter trains to be added to other routes to further increase capacity on a range of services.

O’Brien said the new service is “very welcome news for commuters across North County Dublin”.

He added that it will “make a real difference for early morning commuters, providing greater choice, reliability and convenience”.

Elsewhere, Irish Rail chief executive Mary Considine said the investment programme will begin to deliver “significant additional capacity from 2027 on the Northern Commuter and other routes”.

She added that the new service which will be operating from next week “allows us to quickly bring real benefit to existing commuters, and those wishing to switch to public transport on one of our busiest routes in the country”.