A €15 million redevelopment of the historic Broadstone depot opposite the Kings Inns in Dublin 7 has been completed by Dublin Bus.
The work has involved the restoration of the Victorian station building, one of Dublin’s six original rail termini, and the modernisation of the maintenance facilities for the bus fleet.
The station, designed by John Skipton Mulvany for the Midland Great Western Railway Company, was completed in 1850 and served until the late 1930s as one of the city's rail principal stations along with Westland Row (Pearse Station) Amiens Street (Connolly Station), Kingsbridge (Heuston Station), North Wall and Harcourt Street.
From the 1870s, the land to the south and west of the station was acquired for the construction of trains, with all of the company’s trains built at the Broadstone workshops from 1878.
Following the decline of the railways in the middle of the last century the station and the surrounding lands, then in the ownership of CIE became a bus depot and now caters for up to 120 buses and 300 employees.
In addition to the restoration of the historic building, and the old overhead gantry cranes, the work involved upgrades to the maintenance facilities which equip the depot to maintain future vehicle specifications, such as full battery electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles into the future if required, Dublin Bus said.
"Broadstone Depot is owned by future generations and we've been careful to preserve it and bring it back to life for the purpose it was built," Dublin Bus chief executive Ray Coyne said.
“Our low emission fleet, sustainability initiatives and depot investments mean we are set to meet Dublin’s transport needs now and into the future.”
