Lansdowne Road DART station will remain closed for a number of hours on Monday, November 18 as a trial exercise ahead of Euro 2020.
Fans taking the DART service to the Aviva Stadium for the crunch Euro 2020 qualifier between the Republic of Ireland and Denmark will have to disembark at either Grand Canal Dock or Sandymount stations during the closure, which is scheduled to take place between 5.30pm and 11pm on the day of the game.
Uefa has advised that the perimeter around the Aviva Stadium be extended ahead of Euro 2020 in order to avoid congestion of supporters outside the grounds without tickets and as such, Lansdowne Road will be closed in the hours before and after kick-off of Ireland vs. Denmark.
NEWS | Lansdowne Road DART Station will be closed for #IRLDEN on November 18 from 17:30-23:00
This is part of a trial operational exercise ahead of @AVIVAStadium hosting 4️⃣ games during @EURO2020 next summer
Read More ➡️ https://t.co/P4pFDzHyhu pic.twitter.com/43hJUsysMv
— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) October 18, 2019
The decision to temporarily close the station came jointly from the Dublin Uefa Euro 2020 Local Organising Structure (LOS) made up of Dublin City Council, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the Aviva Stadium, in conjunction with An Garda Síochána, the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Iarnrod Eireann.
Cathal Dervan, Director of Communications at the FAI said: “Euro 2020 is the third biggest sporting event in the world and we are expecting that the countries we welcome here for our games will bring a lot of supporters, some of whom won’t have tickets. The matches at Euro 2020 will have different profiles, requirements, mobility patterns, and ticketing systems to a normal game at Aviva Stadium.
“Ireland has never hosted an international event of this magnitude before and we are testing additional stadium access, mobility, safety and security measures, one of which is the temporary closure of the Lansdowne Road DART/Train Station. Following this trial, a joint review will be undertaken in advance of Euro 2020.”
The Aviva Stadium will host four games as part of the tournament.