[18-11-08] Dublin area delays

[Thomas Ralph]

DART and commuter services are delayed by up to half an hour due to points failure at Connolly.

In unrelated news the last train to Rosslare is jammed and the trolley can't get around.

[Rashers]

17.13 Pearse to Dundalk delayed - the 1,800 odd passengers were directed to take northbound DARTs to Connolly, where according to announcements at Pearse St + Tara st, their service would depart from platform 4.
I was on the 17.28 ex Pearse St (starts in Dun Laoghaire), and so 15 mins later, they were still trying to get passengers to Connolly.
But worse was to come.

When this Drogheda service pulled into Connolly, it would seem like all 1,800 passngers were waiting to get onto the already full 17.33 to Drogheda. Crazy overcrowding. It would appear there was no information about the mystery train from platform 4.
So while the 2nd service departed on time, it crawled all the way to Malahide. Picked up 10-15 min delay. No reason given by the driver. The real killer was I think IE ran the 17.13 to Dundalk directly behind the 17.33, but told no one. And while I can't be sure, I assume this service was virtually empty, except for the passengers left behind at Connolly.
The driver on the 17.33 was a disaster. Not a single announcement about the reason for the delays (I arrived as the 17.33 was pulling into the station hence I seen nothing on the displays about delays, and the IE website had nothing about delays at 17.05 when I checked). Not only that, but if they were running an empty service behind it, why not tell the passengers, so at least at Donabate, they could have transferred, reducing the overcrowding.
While I cannot be sure of all the above facts, as with IE, trying to piece together facts with no information can prove difficult.
Certainly the worst overcrowding I've seen in a long time :mad: