[19/11/2013] Bridge strike Clontarf rd AM services delayed
 

Delays of up to 30 mins to all Darts towards Bray and Howth. Northern suburban trains also heavily delayed. On an already packed ex Drogheda train making additional stops to deal with crowds on platforms. Will add to delays. Connolly- Belfast train running 30 mins late departing.LED displays updated around 8am...Driver provided no reason.:(

Driver finally made an announcement. Stuck at Raheny:D . Strangely only 3 trains stuck ahead of us (only 1 Dart), so surprised how backlogged we are. Would have thought all that investment in the new signalling systems would have allowed more services into Connolly during delays. Platforms packed, with min 20 min wait for southbound Darts. Estimates for delays per website complete underestimate.

Stuck at Killester, yet IE app shows we are the next train due into Connolly. I would think either the website is wrong, or there is an additional problem they are not telling passengers about. Now on the train for last hour with one announcement 20 mins ago. Don't know why driver refusing to make announcements. Fuming!!!!:@

As far as I can see a major contributor to this morning's chaos was Irish Rail's post incident response. Rather than run the first three or four more heavily delayed services non-stop to Connolly they added additional stops to already overcrowded commuter services thus further delaying these services and causing additional delay to following services.

For instance the 0700 from Dundalk left Malahide after the bridge strke was cleared but took 46 minutes to limp into Connolly.

Oof! So glad I decided to drive today. Lucky escape. I do love the Irish though - recently marvelling at the Garda twitter account advising that Gards don't drive in high heels. Brilliant.

Now IE: “To the trucker who hit bridge, failed to report it & left scene: we have your reg & company you drive for. Talk soon, lots to discuss.”

What other country would you get this sort of humour from an official semi-state outlet? Brilliant.

A significant contributory factor to delays at Connolly this morning was the appearance of a southbound empty DART at Connolly at 0849. This train occupied a platform for 7 minutes before departing southbound at 0856, greatly adding to congestion between Connolly and Pearse and delaying following services by up to 10 minutes.