The well known town of Kilkenny was first served by rail when the GSWR extended their then Waterford line south from Carlow in the early 1850s. The line terminated at Kilkenny, and when it was extended south to Waterford trains had to runround at the station. In 1878 however, a line was built northwards from the Kilkenny terminus to Portlaoise via Abbeyleix which dispensed with the runround of trains, this allowing Dublin-Waterford trains an alternative route to that via Carlow, which required the annoyance of a runround to continue south. The Portlaoise line however closed in 1962, and Kilkenny is once again a terminus and trains still have to runround to continue south to Waterford.

The original station building and train shed at Kilkenny are now redundant, with the main building now utilising the former goods shed and yard. To avoid the runround, a direct curve was built at Lavistown in 1995 to allow frequent Bell Liner freight trains to avoid Kilkenny Station. Today, the direct curve is only used by Norfolk Liner and timber trains.