Timeline: Navan’s train journey rumbling along for best part of 40 years

The campaign to reopen the Navan rail line began as far back as the 1980's when Dunboyne councillor, the late Mary Silver was a lone voice calling for the reopening of the line to the Dunboyne, where the route was still intact, and the eventual restoration of a railway line to Navan.

It would be more than 20 years before the wisdom of her proposal was taken seriously, but in 2008, work finally began on the rail link to Dunboyne and plans were also advancing for its continuation to Navan on a route travelling west of Dunshaughlin.

Work got underway in November 2008 on the new commuter rail line to Dunboyne, estimated to cost €160 million the time. Meath football star, Nigel Crawford, Ciarán Whelan of Dublin and Bohermeen jockey Johnny Murtagh joined Transport Minister Noel Dempsey at Dublin"s Docklands Station to announce the awarding of the contract to construction company SIAC. The laying of first tracks on the line to Dunboyne were witnessed by Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey and the chairman of CIÉ, Dr John Lynch.

Meanwhile, Iarnród Éireann had commenced the design of Phase Two of the Navan Railway line from Pace to Navan and a railway order was expected to be lodged in the middle of 2011 for the project.

The new Dunboyne M3 commuter rail route was officially opened in September 2010 by the Minister Dempsey. A special train departed Docklands station with councillors, TDs, ministers, officials from Meath County Council and Iarnrod Eireann as well as locals from Dunboyne for the historic first journey.

Also in 2010, funding was announced to prepare a railway order for the Navan to Dublin rail line, along a route which would travel west of Dunshaughlin.

By 2011 a battle was underway over the location of the proposed Dublin to Navan railway line - whether it should be placed west or east of Dunshaughlin.

The project received a devastating blow later that year with the announcement it had been axed from the government's four-year capital spending plan.

The rail line was officially shelved in 2016, when it was assessed that there was insufficient prospective commuter traffic to justify the development of a high-capacity rail line. Instead, it was proposed to enhance the bus service.

In 2020 a study by consultants, Aecom, showed a strong the case for extending the link from the Parkway station to Navan.

The following year the National Transport Authority confirmed in its draft strategy for the Greater Dublin Area, that the rail link would be delivered, but with a timeline suggesting it would be completed between 2031 and 2042.

The following year the project was bumped up to a designated a medium term project in the finalised Greater Dublin Area (GDA) Transport Strategy covering a 2031 to 2036 timeframe.

Iarnród Éireann appointed consultants for the project in 2024 and the following year, Meath County Council began preparing an overall Master Plan for a triangle of lane bound by Carriage Road, Trim Road and Dan Shaw Road in Navan, which included the potential location for Navan Central Rail Station.

In November last year,Iarnród Éireann bosses confirmed that the Railway Order for the Navan Rail line would now be submitted by the end of 2027.