[30/03/2011] Serious Incident Portarlington - Major Heuston-side Delays

[Jamie2k9]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/...w&news_id=1047

Severe Disruption to services in and out of Heuston this afternoon by Corporate Communications


Services in and out of Heuston are severely disrupted.

Due to a serious incident at Portarlington, where a person was struck by a train, services in and out of Heuston are severely disrupted.

Emergency services are making their way to the scene and updates will be posted as soon as they become available.

,..

[Mark Gleeson]

Expect major delays and cancellations on all services to/from Heuston for several hours

There is a fatality on the line at Portarlington

13:30 from Cork is stuck in Portlaoise

[plant43]

I don't understand why they can't at least run the Kildare commuter line services. As I understand it there is nothing running to/from Heuston at the moment.

Whoops just saw the latest twitter update. Ignore me.

[Jamie2k9]

Newbridge Commuter services will be extended Kildare. Waterford services are operating. All may be subject to a delay

We are endeavouring to arrange bus transfers for customers currently enroute. But there are currently no services departing Heuston for Limerick, Cork, Killarney, Westport or Galway

..

[Mark Gleeson]

The 15:25 Dublin Limerick got as far as Hazelhatch

All trains after the 15:25 ex Heuston are holding in Heuston until the line is clear

Trains are starting to back up on the approaches to Portarlington

[Colm Moore]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0330/heustonstation.html

Portarlington incident causing rail disruption
Updated: 17:16, Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Commuters out of Heuston Station are facing severe disruption after an incident on the railway line near Portarlington.

The incident took place when an out-of-service train was travelling from Portlaoise to Heuston. Emergency services are attending the scene.

It is expected the line could now be closed for five hours.

Commuters are facing long delays and bus transfers. The Hueston-Waterford service is operating, but all other routes are affected.

[Colm Moore]

http://twitter.com/IrishRail

Heuston update 1710hrs: Trains running Heuston-Waterford & Heuston-Newbridge/Kildare. Bus transfers Heuston-Athlone, Kildare-Portlaoise... ..Onward connections from Portlaoise/Athlone to south & west. Expect severe delay and heavy demand. Emergency services still at scene.

less than 10 seconds ago
via Seesmic Desktop

http://irishrail.ie/news_centre/trav...w&news_id=1047

Severe Disruption to services in and out of Heuston this afternoon by Corporate Communications

Services in and out of Heuston are severely disrupted.

Due to a serious incident at Portarlington, where a person was struck by a train, services in and out of Heuston are severely disrupted.

Newbridge Commuter services will be extended Kildare. Waterford services are operating. All may be subject to a delay

We are endeavouring to arrange bus transfers for customers currently enroute. But there are currently no services departing Heuston for Limerick, Cork, Killarney, Westport or Galway

Emergency services are at the scene, but it is anticipated that it will be some time yet before the line reopend.Updates will be posted as soon as they become available.

Iarnród Éireann apologises for any inconvenience caused

[Jamie2k9]

Line has reopened. Services will have delayes for the rest of the evening.

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...293433171.html

Rail passengers faced long delays

Thousands of rail commuters travelling between Dublin and the south and west experienced long delays yesterday following a serious incident in Portarlington, Co Laois.

Services in and out of Heuston Station were severely disrupted after a person was struck by a train shortly after 3pm. GardaÃ* and emergency services attended the scene until after 7pm. Services between Heuston and Limerick, Cork, Killarney, Westport and Galway were disrupted all evening. Bus transfers arranged by Iarnród Éireann between Heuston and Athlone and between Kildare and Portlaoise to facilitate onward journeys had limited capacity.

[EnterpriseUser]

These events are incredibly inconvenient and priority should be given to keeping the line open. One also feels for the driver in these circumstances. It is an incredibly foolish and selfish act to trespass on the railway line, intentionally or unintentionally.

[comcor]

I've often heard reports of people just going for a walk on some of the lesser used rail lines - the kind that only have a couple of trains a day on them. They apparently know the timetable. Fine, until there's an unscheduled service.

Although Portarlington must get a train every quarter of an hour, so it would be surprising if someone chose to do it there.

[Mark Gleeson]

Speculation is not a good idea, thats for the coroner to resolve.

The facts are a train struck a person on the line close to Portarlington station. The train involved was the normal scheduled empty Portlaoise TCD to Heuston. The train had front, rear and side facing cameras. Line speed is 80 mph at that point.

No one should trespass on a railway line for any reason

In these cases the gardai have to satisfy themselves as to the cause before reopening as these cases are nearly always treated as criminal investigations until proven otherwise.

[markpb]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Portlaoise TCD to Heuston

TCD?

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by markpb

TCD?

Train Care Depot

[markpb]

Thanks Mark.

[dowlingm]

Maybe IE needs to set up something like this
http://www.operationlifesaver.ca/