Getting Around Athlone
Athlone is a compact town at the centre of Ireland, and its centre is small enough to explore on foot. For anything beyond the centre, you have a mix of local buses, taxis and intercity coaches, with the railway station anchoring the whole network just north of the town centre.
On Foot
The heart of Athlone is small enough to get around on foot, which makes walking the simplest option for most short trips within the town centre. Be aware, though, that Athlone is a textbook example of a poorly planned, ribbon town that stretches a long way from east to west while being very narrow north to south in places. That means some destinations that look close on a map can be a long walk, and much of the bus traffic coming into Athlone makes multiple stops to cover the spread-out town.
Rail
Athlone railway station sits about 500 m north of the town centre and is served by Irish Rail. Trains from Dublin Heuston run roughly hourly and take about 1 hr 20 min, calling at Portarlington, Tullamore and Clara on the way. From Athlone, services continue either west via Athenry to Galway, or northwest to Roscommon, Castlebar and Westport, with connections onward to Ballina.
The network also opens up the rest of the country through transfers: changing at Athenry extends your journey to Ennis and Limerick, while changing at Portarlington connects to Limerick Junction and Limerick, and onward from Portarlington to Mallow and then Cork, Killarney, Farranfore and Tralee. Travelling via Kildare enables connections to Carlow, Kilkenny and Waterford.
For tickets, a walk-up single from Dublin is around €15, and you can check timetables, fares and buy online through Irish Rail. At the station itself, the ticket office opens Monday to Friday about 15 minutes before trains, and there are also ticket machines and toilets.
Buses and Local Public Transport
Bus Éireann's cross-town routes A1 and A2 run from Monksland in the west through the bus and railway station, the town centre, Golden Island Shopping Centre and Athlone Institute of Technology, out to Creggan Court in the east. They run every 15 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 30 minutes on Sundays and public holidays. The two follow the same route except that the A1 goes via Retreat Road and the A2 via Ballymahon Road. As of June 2021 the cash fare was €2 for adults and €1.20 for children, or €1.40 for adults and 84c for children using a TFI Leap Card.
Flagline Bus also operates a local route, the Ath1, between Golden Island Shopping Centre and Athlone Institute of Technology, running every 15 minutes Monday to Saturday for a €1 single cash fare.
Several regional and intercity services make multiple stops around town rather than a single central stop. The 190 (departing from Athlone only), 815, 819 (with an additional stop at SOLAS Garrycastle) and 850 all stop at Golden Island and at Athlone TUS. The 72 and 73 stop at Athlone TUS, while the 548 calls at Northgate Street, the Luan Art Gallery and Monksland, among other stops. Route maps, including stop locations, are shown on the TFI route mapper.
Note that Bus Éireann's former hourly services to Dublin and Galway from the bus station beside the railway station were cancelled indefinitely in July 2021, with the company citing continuing losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, journeys between Athlone and Galway, Ballinasloe, Moate, Dublin city or Dublin airport have been operated by private companies only, with passengers dropped off or picked up at the Arcadia Retail Park and Athlone Institute of Technology rather than the bus station. Private operators stopping in Athlone include Citylink and an Aircoach route (Galway–Athlone–Dublin) established soon after to cope with demand. There are also services to Limerick, Waterford, Cavan, Longford and Roscommon, and locally operated services such as Flagline, which runs local routes as well as a service to Tullamore.
Coaches to and from Dublin and Galway
Citylink competes on the airport route. Its Bus 763 is a commercial service running several times a day to Dublin and to Galway City, via Dublin Aston Quay and Heuston station, Lucan, Enfield, Kinnegad, Kilbeggan and Moate to Athlone, where the stop is outside B&Q. It continues west to Ballinasloe, Aughrim, Loughrea and Galway.
Other useful regional connections include Bus Éireann's 72 from Limerick to Athlone via Nenagh, Birr, Cloghane and Ferbane; the 190 from Athlone to Drogheda, which serves Moate, Mullingar and Killucan in Westmeath as well as Trim, Slane and Drogheda; the 70 from Mullingar; the 73 from Waterford via Thomastown, Kilkenny, Carlow, Portlaoise and Tullamore; the 440 from Westport via Castlebar, Knock airport and village, and Roscommon; and the 446 to Cavan, serving Glasson, Ballymahon and Longford among others. Local Link services fill in the gaps: the 819 to Mullingar (extended in the April to summer months to serve Belvedere House and Gardens), the 815 between Tullamore and Athlone via Clara, Tubber and Moate, the 850 between Athlone and Roscrea, and the 548 between Athlone and Roscrea via Ballinasloe. Timetables are available from Bus Éireann, Local Link and the relevant Local Link offices.
Taxis and Ride-Hailing
There are taxi ranks at the train station and on Church Street, making it easy to pick up a cab near the main arrival points or in the town centre.
Getting from the Airport into Athlone
Athlone is about 90 minutes' drive from Dublin (DUB), Shannon (SNN) or Knock (NOC) airports. Dublin is generally the best choice because of its wide range of flights and good onward transport. Two bus lines compete on the route from Dublin airport and city centre to Athlone and Galway, so you have options for a direct coach connection. If you fly into Knock, Bus Éireann's 440 route runs from Westport via Castlebar, Knock airport and village, and Roscommon to Athlone, with four return journeys daily — though like the 73, this service is designed to connect local villages and towns along the way rather than for end-to-end journeys, and the train from Athlone to Westport is twice as fast.
By Road
If you are driving, from Dublin follow the N4/M4, which becomes the M6 at Kinnegad and takes about 90 minutes to Athlone. It continues west to Galway, another hour beyond.