Passenger revenues are down 50 per cent at Limerick's Colbert Station over the past four weeks, according to Mr Jim Gallivan, business development manager at the station, but train services have normalised.

Three quarters of the direct services to and from Dublin are operating regularly, Mr Gallivan said, but the number of passengers who begin their trip from Limerick has almost halved, from 23,000 over the equivalent four-week period last year to 12,000. But the number of travellers is increasing week by week as normality returns.

"A pattern has kind of been established in that so far, we have managed to maintain our morning service to Dublin and our evening service to Limerick," said Mr Gallivan. Services which depend on connections to the Cork-Dublin service at Limerick Junction have been most affected and passengers have shied away from using them. "On any one day we could have six services operating via Limerick Junction; on the following day, we could have two," he said.

Although 12 of the ILDA members are from Limerick, they are most closely associated with the freight services. Irish Cement, which has a plant in Mungret, Co Limerick, has had to use Iarnrod Eireann's road haulage service.

Tourists have been most affected by the curtailment in services, including Irish holiday-makers who wish to travel by rail to Cork or Dublin for flights or to catch a ferry. "We are also caught with the leisure traffic - people travelling to Dublin for the day, or staying overnight for concerts," Mr Gallivan said.

A spokeswoman at Limerick Tourist Office said staff were advising people to check with the train station in advance. "The trains have been offering a service and obviously, there is a very good bus service to Dublin and to Cork," she said.