Shanmuga Priyan Rajendran

Project Title: Air quality assessment & mitigation measures for railway station terminals in Dublin

Keywords: Railway settings, Monitoring, Air pollution, Health risk, Source apportionment, Modeling

The impacts of major railway terminals on local ambient air quality in Ireland equally requires further research (Government of Ireland, 2021), with research in the UK reporting very high levels of NO₂ and particulate matter (PM) at railway stations, well more than EU limit values. This was shown to be the case at New Street station in Birmingham, for instance, where very high concentrations of NO₂ were observed inside the train station and to a lesser degree in the surrounding local environment. Furthermore, while not specifically examining the impact of railway hubs, pollution hotspots in Dublin with recorded exceedances of NO₂ have been reported in the local environment of the three major train station terminals in Dublin (e.g. Connolly, Heuston, and Pearse Street) (Government of Ireland, 2021). In addition, concentrations inside Connolly Station were reported to be more than NO₂ limit values (Government of Ireland, 2021).

The project aims at assessing the air quality in the environs of urban railways hubs in Dublin and explore the novel mitigation measures to improve air quality within as well as outside the stations. A range of mitigation measures for the sources of air pollution in the environs of urban railways hubs, and different policy, technological and design measures (design of mechanical ventilation solutions and nature-based solutions inside railway Hubs) will be assessed and evaluated in the project.

Supervisor:  Dr John Gallagher