Context Civil unrest in Ireland had led to the assumption of governmental control of all railways operating in the Island of Ireland on 22 December 1916 through the Irish Railways Executive Committee, later succeeded by the Ministry of Transport. Control was returned to the management of the companies on 15 August 1921. The
Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 establishing the
Irish Free State and subsequent
Irish Civil War all combined to be damaging to the railways of Ireland widespread and extensive damage to infrastructure and
rolling stock. Between 1916 and 1921 revenues had doubled while
operating costs and wages had quadrupled. When the GS&WR, by far the largest of the companies, announced it would cease operations on 8 January 1923. The Irish Free State had already recognised the importance of the railway system and had set up the Railway Commission to advise on ownership in April 1922. The impending collapse led to the process that was to create the GSR.
Formation Provision for the creation of the company was made by the Railways Act 1924, which mandated the amalgamation (in the case of the four major railway companies) and absorption (of the 22 smaller companies) of all railways wholly within the
Irish Free State. Only cross-border railways, most notably the
Great Northern Railway (GNR) and the
Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway (SL&NCR), remained outside its control.
First amalgamation The
Great Southern and Western Railway, the
Midland Great Western Railway and the
Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway agreed to terms for amalgamation, forming the
Great Southern Railway by way of secondary legislation.
DSER joins The Great Southern Railway
s was formed when the fourth major company, the
Dublin and South Eastern Railway (DSER), joined these companies. The DSER was substantially British-owned and had wished to merge with the GNR but was overruled.
Smaller companies The smaller companies were absorbed under several successive
statutory instruments.
Omissions and anomalies CIÉ previously maintained a full online list of the twenty five companies which constituted the Great Southern Railways in 1925.
Early years The GS&WR was the dominant constituent in terms of area, route millage and rolling stock. The GSR's headquarters were established at Kingsbridge and
Inchicore became the chief engineering works. The former Dublin and South Eastern section in particular had become extremely run down and needed extensive remedial work on its rolling stock with about one-third condemned with immediate effect. Revenue for passengers decreased from £1.91m in 1925 to £1.28m by 1931, that for freight decreasing from £2.27m to £2.05m.
Buses and hotels From 1929, when it acquired a stake in the Irish Omnibus Company, the company also ran bus services. These operations became the responsibility, from 1 January 1934, of the Great Southern Railways Omnibus Department. The group owned a number of hotels, and in 1990 the hotel group was transferred from Córas Iompair Éireann to
Aer Rianta, in the ownership of which it remained until 2006. The hotel group formed by the company,
Great Southern Hotels, continued to bear that name until its
privatisation in 2006. Only the Sligo hotel continued to use the Great Southern name as of 2016, but in January 2018 The Malton Hotel in Killarney reverted to its original name of the Great Southern.
1930s Worldwide economic conditions continued to be difficult and affected Ireland also, passenger and freight revenue decreased to £1.27m and £2.05m by 1939.
Second World War Although the Republic of Ireland was a neutral country, railway transport was severely disrupted by
The Emergency. The lack of high-quality coal fuel in Ireland and the need to import from England was severe and desperate alternatives such as turf-burning had only extremely limited success. By 1944 most non-suburban passenger services were restricted to Mondays and Thursdays only with some curtailed altogether.
Transfer to CIÉ The Transport Act 1944 dissolved the company and transferred its assets, together with those of the
Dublin United Transport Company to
Córas Iompair Éireann, from 1 January 1945. ==Route network==