We are planning to travel from Killarney to Cork by train, and then from Cork to Kinsale by private transfer. The train is scheduled to arrive in Cork at 11:41. I’m assuming it would take another 30 minutes for the drive to Kinsale. I’d like to book a 2:00 pm food tour in Kinsale on our arrival day. It seems like we should arrive In Kinsale in plenty of time. How reliable are the trains and the scheduled arrival times? Do you think this would work? There are no late arrivals permitted on the food tour. Thanks!
Posted by
Citizen of the World
2350 posts
Trains in Ireland sometimes do run late. In my experience, it’s not a surprise for trains to occasionally be 10-15 minutes behind schedule.
Express trains are more reliable.
Posted by
Lake District, England
8692 posts
In this case the connection at Mallow into the express train is quite a healthy 38 minute connection, and the train from Mallow is one of the Dublin to Cork express trains.
Those run hourly, so even if one was cancelled for some reason (which could be nothing to do with the railways- it could be a lineside fire, a road vehicle hitting a bridge or someone in personal mental crisis doing something unfortunate on the tracks for instance) you will still be into Cork with time in hand.
You may not be aware but the train from Killarney to Cork runs every two hours with a switch in Mallow, taking a total of two hours. The high quality Bus Eireann Bus #40 runs every hour taking 95 minutes.
So this 0941 train is beaten into Cork by 35 minutes by the bus at 0930, arriving at Cork Bus Station at 1105.
The other big difference to most of Amtrak is that not much freight moves on Irish railways. And what does is operated by Irish Rail- the same company as runs passenger trains. So passenger trains are not at the mercy of freight trains- which are the chief cause of delay to Amtrak.