Bray Daly railway station

Bray Daly Bré Uí Dhálaigh
Commuter 29000 Class at Bray Daly station
Location	Bray Republic of Ireland
Coordinates	53°12′15″N 6°6′1″W / 53.20417°N 6.10028°WCoordinates: 53°12′15″N 6°6′1″W / 53.20417°N 6.10028°W
Owned by	Iarnród Éireann
Operated by	Iarnród Éireann
Platforms	3 (only 2 see regular use)
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
Other information
Station code	BRAY
Fare zone	Suburban 4
Key dates
10 July 1854	Opened, as Bray
14 July 1924	Renamed Bri Chualann (Bray)
c.1930	Renamed Bray
10 April 1966	Renamed Bray Daly
2 December 1974	Closes to goods traffic

Mural in Bray Daly Station

A panel representing every decade

Distinctive outline of Bray Head in the background

Bray Daly railway station (Stáisiún Bhré / Uí Dhálaigh in Irish) is a station situated in Bray in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is located adjacent to Bray seafront and is 600m from Bray Main Street via Florence Road or Quinsborough Road.

Routes

DART

From the inception of the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) service until its extension to Greystones in 2000, Bray Daly was the terminus, with a large number of sidings just south of the station for stabling trains. Although some DARTs now continue southwards to Greystones, the majority still terminate in Bray. Northbound DART services towards Howth and Malahide usually start from Bray, with some from Greystones. From Bray southbound the line becomes single track.

Other services

Bray is on the Dublin-Rosslare and Dundalk-Dublin-Arklow routes, and all trains on these routes stop here. They often run non-stop between Bray and Dublin Connolly railway station, and freight and maintenance trains pass through Bray without stopping. Between the 1984 inauguration of DART and November 1990, a diesel shuttle train (initially a 201 class or 121 class locomotive with former AEC railcars converted to push–pull stock, later an 80 class train leased from Northern Ireland Railways) operated between Bray and Greystones, connecting with DART services.^[1] A similar service using a steam railmotor had operated briefly between 1906 and 1908.^[2]

Station building

The station houses a bar (closed), shop, coffee stall, ticket office, automated teller machine (ATM) and unheated public toilets. There is a staff room for drivers. Sheltered bicycle parking is located inside the station. Disabled access to platform 2 on the east side of the station is through a new gate on that side, but lifts are also provided on the footbridge. The ticket office is open between 07:00-10:00 AM, Monday to Friday.

The redevelopment that saw the installation of these lifts was part of Iarnród Éireann's Dart Upgrade project to improve stations and facilities on the DART line. In addition to the lifts, the distinctive pyramid-style glass roof over platform 2 was renovated, as was the main station building.

The station was opened on 10 July 1854 ^[3] following the extension of the railway line south from Dalkey. The extension of the line around Bray Head in 1855 was not accompanied by any additional works at Bray station, so from then until 1928 the station had one through platform serving both southbound through trains and northbound trains to both Harcourt Street and Westland Row (Pearse) and Amiens Street (Connolly). As suburban services from Dublin became more frequent, this made the station extremely difficult to work, even with the provision of a bay platform at the south end for shuttle services to Greystones.

It was given the name Daly on 10 April 1966, 50 years after the Easter Rising, when Córas Iompair Éireann renamed 15 major stations after Republican leaders. It is named in honour of Edward Daly, a leader in the 1916 Easter Rising.

Platforms

Since it was rebuilt in 1928, the station has two main platforms; platform 1 on the west side of the station near the main entrance, and platform 2 over the footbridge on the east side of the station. Although platform 1 is generally used for northbound services and platform 2 for southbound services and terminating trains, the roles are frequently reversed so as to accommodate as many services as possible. Platform 3, the platform formerly used for the Greystones diesel shuttle, is very seldom used as it has no northbound capacity - it ends directly south of the station building. It is used for cleaning trains and occasionally for DART services to and from Greystones.

Picture Series

One of the more distinctive elements of Bray Daly station is the series of paintings on platform 2. Beginning with a painting of the opening ceremony in 1852, the series runs along the length of the platform, documenting both Irish history and Irish railway history up to the present day. Various carriages, locomotives and characters can be seen in the pictures, including Oscar Wilde, British soldiers in 1916, James Joyce in the 1940s, and a hippy couple in the 1960s. Many of these panels were in need of repair as lime was seeping through the plaster. In 2008 the original artist began a mosaic replacement programme for the mural.

Road transport services

Directly outside the station are bus stops for Dublin Bus routes 45A, 84, 184 and 185, connecting Bray to Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, Blackrock, Enniskerry, Greystones and North Wicklow. The high-frequency 145 bus service from Kilmacanogue to Heuston Station (via Bray) no longer serves the station, with the nearest stop located 600m from the station on Bray Main Street. The station is also served by the Finnegan Bray local bus services on routes to Bray Southern Cross and Sandyford Luas (Route 111). There is a busy taxi rank outside the station, and a large car park adjacent to the station, and a pickup lane for collecting passengers by car. A tiny Chinatown adjoins the station in Albert Walk with restaurants, groceries and other shops.

See also

• List of railway stations in Ireland

References

1. Whistler, A.J. (January 1995). "Greystones Shuttle". Journal of the Irish Railway Record Society. 19 (127): 54–67.
2. Collins, Michael (June 2008). "Irish steam rail-motors and railcars". Journal of the Irish Railway Record Society. 23 (166): 272–91.
3. "Wellingtonbridge station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 2008-04-22.

External links

• Bray Daly Station - Official Iarnród Éireann webpage