Planned Iarnród Éireann works begin with a breakdown

Irish Rail has said disruptions to its services into Heuston Station on Saturday morning were due to a problem with the 6.45am service from Cork - and not because of the start of its €9 million track upgrade.

Last week Iarnród Éireann advised passengers of a revised schedule of services between April 2nd and November, due to the latest phase of its track refurbishment - a €9 million programme between Heuston and Hazelhatch on the Dublin-Kildare border.

The location of the works impacts on trains serving routes between Ballina, Co Mayo and Waterford.

However, as the work got under way on Saturday morning, commuters took to social media to complain of missing train, an unresponsive Twitter feed and illegible real time information displays.

Not staffed

Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny said the timetable had generally run as advised on the company website, with the exception of a breakdown on the early morning service from Cork. He said the Twitter feed was not staffed at the weekend.

According to Iarnród Éireann’s revised schedule, Saturdays on April 9th, 16th, and 30th next will be affected, as well as selected Saturdays from May to July, and September to November.

On these days, services between Cork and Dublin will operate every two hours in each direction, with higher capacity running.

Services between Limerick and Dublin will operate every two hours, connecting to and from all Cork services at Limerick Junction.

Services between Tralee and Dublin services will operate every two hours, connecting to and from all Cork services at Mallow.

The 21.20pm Heuston to Cork service will split at Limerick Junction. The first four coaches will travel to Cork and the last four will travel on to Limerick.

Iarnród Éireann has advised customers to ensure they are on the correct coaches for their destination.

Services between Galway and Dublin will operate every two hours in each direction, with higher capacity running.

Westport trains will operate to and from Athlone with connections to Galway services.

Bus transfers

On Waterford services there will be bus transfers between Dublin and Athy for all services.

Regular Kildare and Portlaoise commuter services will operate between Heuston and Newbridge only, with some changes to times.

The 6:45am Portlaoise-Heuston and 10:15pm Heuston-Portlaoise services will operate, but there will be no other commuter services between Portlaoise-Kildare and Dublin.

Mr Kenny, said customers travelling to or from Portlaoise, Portarlington, Monasterevin, Kildare and Newbridge will be served by Intercity trains.

On affected Saturdays, a trolley service will be provided on all Intercity services to and from Heuston. Dining car and restaurant car facilities will not be available.