Waterford & Suir Valley Railway

The railway from Waterford to Dungarvan opened in 1878 and lost its passengers in 1967. Goods trains came back in 1970 for a magnesite works, the last ran in 1987, and then the rails were lifted. On the last ten kilometres into Waterford, a group of volunteers put a railway back: narrower than the one that had gone, laid by hand with picks and shovels on the old trackbed, and open to the public since 2003.

The Waterford & Suir Valley Railway runs from the restored station at Kilmeadan along the south bank of the River Suir, past a ruined castle, the edge of Mount Congreve's gardens and a wood the railway says belongs to the fairies. The trains are small diesels hauling two part-open carriages, and the whole outing takes forty minutes there and back.

It is a community railway, run as a charity, and the Waterford Greenway now shares its trackbed, so walkers and cyclists pass the train on the way into the city.

Trains leave Kilmeadan on the hour. The station is the original one on the Waterford–Dungarvan line, the first stop out of the city, and the railway's only passing loop is here. The track is Iarnród Éireann's old 87 lb bull-head rail in cast-iron chairs, cut down from the Irish gauge of 5 ft 3 in to 3 ft, because narrow-gauge stock was easier to find and open carriages suited a family day out.

Along the Suir

The train runs east towards Waterford at about 16 km/h. Kilmeadan Castle comes first, a ruin on the left where cormorants sit on the wall. Then the line skirts Mount Congreve, whose gardens show only in glimpses through the trees, and enters the Magic Wood, where passengers are invited to make a wish. Past the lime kilns the river opens out: reed beds, the wide tidal Suir and County Kilkenny on the far bank. Carriganore, the "stone of gold", is where Waterford's merchants are said to have buried their treasure as Cromwell approached.

On weekdays and Sundays the train turns back short of the city. On Saturdays it carries on through the 40-metre Dan Donovan Tunnel under the Waterford bypass, towards Gracedieu Junction and the cable-stayed Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge, which adds ten minutes. The line goes on to Bilberry, on the edge of Waterford, but only pre-booked groups are taken that far.

The trains

The usual engine is Enterprise 3, a 6-tonne Simplex with a 68-horsepower Perkins diesel. It worked in the peat industry in the north of England and on the building of the Channel Tunnel before Alan Keef rebuilt it in 2000, and the railway bought it a year later. Two others back it up: a Hunslet on the bogies of a Bord na Móna locomotive, and LM 348, a Simplex built for Bord na Móna in 1980. The two carriages, also by Alan Keef, were made for a theme park in South America; when that deal fell through, Waterford bought them. Each has four open toast-rack compartments and a closed saloon. A steam engine is coming: Kettering Furnaces No. 3, built by Black Hawthorn in 1885 and given by the National Trust, is being restored in Darlington.

Every train starts and finishes at Kilmeadan, leaving on the hour. The 2026 summer season ran every day from 28 March to 30 September; the railway says it opens from 1 April to 30 September each year, plus the school mid-term breaks in February and October and the Santa Express in December. Times below are for 2026, read from the railway's site in November 2026.

A return trip takes 40 minutes from Sunday to Friday and 50 minutes on Saturday, when the train runs on through the Dan Donovan Tunnel. Arrive ten minutes early: the trains leave on time.

Out of season

The Santa Express runs on 28 and 29 November 2026, every weekend in December up to the 20th, and on 9, 16, 22 and 23 December. The 2027 summer timetable had not been published in November 2026.

Getting to Kilmeadan

Kilmeadan is 10 km west of Waterford on the R680. Bus Éireann's 354 to Portlaw stops at the station car park; in 2026 it left the Clock Tower on Waterford's quays at 09:58, 11:58 and 14:00, and came back from opposite the station at 11:50, 13:50, 15:50 and 17:20.

Waterford & Suir Valley Railway · Railway tour and times (opens in a new tab) · Getting here (opens in a new tab).

A return from Kilmeadan cost €14 for an adult in 2026, €6 for a child and €12 for a student or senior; children under three travel free. Family tickets start at €30 for two adults and a child. Booking ahead is advised: the online system sells a seat on a chosen departure, in a chosen compartment, and only what is left goes on sale at the station on the day.

Two compartments take wheelchairs; say so when booking. Small dogs on a lead are welcome. Fares read from the railway's site in November 2026.

No rail pass covers this train. The Waterford & Suir Valley Railway is an independent heritage line, and it is not in Interrail's table of railway companies — which, checked in November 2026 (last updated 21 October), names only Irish Rail and Translink for the island of Ireland. A pass holder buys a ticket at Kilmeadan like everyone else.

A pass does cover the train to Waterford. Irish Rail runs to the city from Dublin Heuston and from Limerick Junction by way of Clonmel, and its InterCity and Regional trains are included with reservations optional. The one-country pass is the Interrail Ireland Pass, which covers Northern Ireland as well; a One Country Pass cannot be used in the country you live in.

Whether it is worth it

Not for this journey. The pass pays only for the Irish Rail leg to Waterford, and only if that is one day of a longer trip around Ireland. From the city to Kilmeadan it is the bus.

Mount Congreve is next door to the railway, and Kilmeadan station is a stop on the Greenway. Waterford, ten kilometres away, is the place for an evening: the Viking quarter, the crystal factory and the quays.

Kilmeadan is a village stop with a café, so stay in or near Waterford and come out by bus or car. The ride, the gardens and a stretch of the Greenway fill a day easily.

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