NOTICE: Irish Rail announces revised Autumn train timetable for Kildare commuters

Irish Rail / Iarnród Éireann has today (September 19) announced its revised Autumn train timetable for commuters, including those in County Kildare.

According to the organisation, the revised timetable will take effect from Monday, September 22, 2025 until Sunday, December 14, 2025 in the greater Dublin area, in order to "reflect the impact of seasonal leaf fall on rail services".

Changes will be made to morning and evening peak services on DART and Dublin Commuter routes, and will see journey times extended by an average of 3 minutes at these times. Customers are also being asked to note earlier departure times on Irish Rail's morning services.

Irish Rail explained: "While it is the first time an Autum timetable has been implemented on Ireland’s rail network, Iarnród Éireann will join railways in Britain, Netherlands, Germany, USA and Canada amongst others in implementing such a measure."

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The organisation also said that autumn leaf fall causes low rail adhesion, "with leaves — especially in damp and wet autumnal conditions — creating a greasy layer on the rail that is the equivalent of black ice on roads."

Irish Rail elaborated: "To ensure safety, train drivers must drive more cautiously and accelerate and decelerate more slowly at times when rails are affected.

"The revised timetable will therefore reflect the restrictive nature of service operation during this challenging time of the year for train services."

MAIN CHANGES

Irish Rail has outlined the following as the main changes in the Autumn timetable:

• Morning services will be slightly in the advanced in the morning with the aim to achieve scheduled arrival times at destination
• Evening services will depart as scheduled from origin with additional time added towards destination
• Journey times are extended primarily between one and three minutes

Irish Rail also pointed out that commuters can check their times before travelling on the organisation's Journey Planner.

In addition, the organisation said that it is implementing several methods and applications in an effort to reduce low rail cohesion. 

According to Irish Rail, some of these methods and applications include:

• Vegetation management
• Specialised water-jetting and gel application Machines
• Traction gel applicators (TGAs)
• Manual gel application and LeafGuard, the latter of which is a biodegradable track cleaner
• Data collection
• On-board sanding equipment

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