Food and drink offering at new train station in Waterford city ‘only a kiosk’

A local councillor has expressed his disappointment at the proposed food and drinking offering at the new train station in Waterford city.

Fianna Fáil councillor Jason Murphy spoke on the subject at the June plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.

Cllr Murphy began by expressing his excitement for the completion of the overall North Quays project.

He stated: “It's a very positive presentation for a hugely positive story and I have to say it’s one of the most exciting developments that I’ve ever seen in my time in Waterford.

“I’m really looking forward to the completion of it over the next number of years.

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“Everything about this is hugely positive and I don’t want to be in any way negative.”

However, Cllr Murphy went on to raise concerns over the lack of catering services proposed for the station.

“I was a little bit disappointed with what is proposed to be the offering on food and beverage.

“If you go into any railway station, including Heuston Station in Dublin or any medium sized railway station, you’d get food and beverage in any concourse, book shops, restaurants, coffee shops and so on and so forth.

“There’s nothing like that on the concourse which I was a little bit disappointed to see.”

He continued by saying that such services would not only serve train commuters, but also the local community in Ferrybank.

“Ferrybank has a growing population, not just feeding into the commuters who will be using the station but feeding the community around there because it’s facing onto the Rockshire Road and Fountain Street.

“I think it would be a great addition to that area if they did have some good food and beverage.

“As I said, it would be used by everyone, not just commuters. [I’m a] little bit disappointed to see there’s only a kiosk over there at the railway station.”

Cllr Murphy concluded by saying he wasn’t sure whether that could be changed at this stage.

He received no response from the executive, as Senior Engineer Séan Dobbs ran out of time to answer councillors’ questions.

The elected members were told that they would be reverted back to privately in due course.