Cabra Looks Set to be Getting a DART Stop

After years of passing through the margins, a station called Cabra might finally be on its way.

On June 26, the NTA will supposedly release something on this. At least according to an instagram story from Cllr Feljin Jose posted earlier this week. Pronounced Fel-jin, he is a Green Party councillor for Phibsborough, Glasnevin, Drumcondra, Cabra & Ashtown as well as the Ex-chair @DublinCommuters.

According to DART+ planning documents, passive provision has been made for a new station in Cabra. The official launch of DART+ says it will triple the DART network from 50 km to over 150 km and pull Dublin firmly into the electric-rail age. This is part of a climate-friendly push to cut car use, boost frequency and knit peripheral communities, including Cabra, more deeply into the city's life.

According to reports, the DART+ South West project has made "passive provision" for a station beneath Kylemore Road Bridge (OBC5A). Which is a part of the rail corridor in Cabra directly over the tracks on Kylemore Road. This means the new bridge is being designed with extra width, span, and clearance, ready to one day host platforms built into the existing structure.

This however looks to be something different, built "parrallel" to the DART+ Line. According to Green Party councillors, the design work began last year, and the new station could be built in parallel with the broader DART+ upgrades to the Phoenix Park Tunnel line. The public will get their first proper look at the proposals when plans go on display at the Deaf Village Ireland from June 26 to July 2.

For years trains have thundered through Cabra like a joke at the neighbourhood’s expense; close enough to hear, but not to use. When I was a teenager, we’d walk the very tracks in Feljin's instagram post. The tracks were there, obviously but the trains were rare. You could time them. You could avoid them. The tracks were a place to play the rebel. Break the rules. Hop the wall, hop the canal, talk about who was 'meeting' who. We would marvel at the fact that the commuter went right by and would stop at Ashtown but not anywhere near the roves of estates. You'd have to walk almost 30 minutes to get to the train station.

Of course there is Broombridge. But for most people in Cabra proper, Broombridge might as well be another suburb. It’s a 21-minute walk from the proposed Cabra Road site. As Marie Sherlock TD has pointed out, that’s a significant gap in access, particularly when we’re meant to be encouraging people to ditch their cars.

So yes, a Cabra DART & DART+ is technical progress. But this is Ireland, and in Ireland “progress” is often what we call something that was obvious 20 years ago, finally being done. Not always well.

There are plans, of course. There are always plans. DART+ West, DART+ South, DART+ Fleet. And maybe they are: clean, efficient, aspirational. Electrified, even. The DART+ programme promises to triple the reach of electrified rail, to reduce our reliance on cars, to connect regional towns and city centres like a set of very expensive dot-to-dots. There’s talk of climate targets, modal integration, time saved, emissions cut. It’s all very sensible, very grown-up.

Cabra isn’t a new development springing from a planning document. It’s an old place on in the throws of gentrification. That the station will bring footfall. That it’ll drive up rents (already happening). That it’ll change the area (as if it hasn’t already changed beyond recognition). The real fear is not of progress, but of being pushed out by the very thing that was supposed to help you stay.

We’ve seen this story before: in Smithfield, in Stoneybatter. First come the transport links, then the glossy cafés, then the renters with ring lights and live-in landlords. Cabra has resisted gentrification longer than most, partly because it, like many areas without infrastructure, had its issues. A station makes you visible. But visibility, as we know, is a double-edged thing.

Maybe I’m being cynical, maybe this time we’ll get it right, maybe the new Cabra DART+ station won’t just be a transit node for people who never set foot in The Bogies. Maybe it’ll have proper lighting, maybe it’ll feel safe after dark, maybe it’ll come with bike racks and bins and somewhere to sit that doesn’t look like it was designed by someone who hates people. Here's hoping it’ll be staffed, and maybe those staff will be treated with dignity.

I guess come June 26. We’ll see.