As a follow up to Friday’s post about this line, I managed to drive the route of the rural end of the line today – covering from Embankment to Poulaphoca (and damaging the phone I was using as a camera in the process).
It was interesting to see that all of the former station locations up to Blessington have a Dublin Bus stop for the 65 route (the replacement bus service) at their locations. There are also many intermediate bus stops not at former tram station locations so the presence of a bus stop is not automatically indicative of there having being a tram stop there.
The road (N81) is largely unchanged in curvature/route since the days of the tramway, which is great from an historical perspective, but does mean that driving it poses difficulties, especially around parking at or near the former stations. In addition, finding somewhere to do a u-turn if you overshoot a station location is fraught with difficulty.
I stopped the drive after Embankment as roadworks at Jobstown meant I couldn’t find somewhere to park safely and likewise in Tallaght village, the road layout didn’t facilitate this. I may survey this section by bike or bus.