Irish Rail has been heavily criticised by passengers in recent months over the management of timetables but Thursday night saw the rail company faced with a different sort of problem.
Dart and commuter trains were suspended due to a “major signalling fault” covering the full line from Greystones to Howth/Malahide, and onwards on the northern commuter line to Dundalk.
It also impacted other routes through the Connolly area, including Maynooth/Sligo services and Rosslare services.
Passengers on northern commuter services suffered lengthy delays as a result, with services resuming as normal on Friday morning.
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The fault occurred at 6.45pm and was initially resolved at about 7.50pm. However, the fault recurred at 9pm, albeit with less of an effect, and was fully resolved by 11.10pm.
Irish Rail apologised to customers for the disruption caused. It said the fault was at centralised control equipment level, affecting the interaction with the various interlockings (safety sequencing in terms of signalling and points) which are part of the system.
“A fault of this nature has not occurred before and we believe it to be an isolated issue,” a spokesman for Irish Rail said.
The company said the central traffic control system was a “legacy system” and had undergone an upgrade in 2019 and 2020.
It will ultimately be replaced by a new National Train Control Centre and its traffic management system, which is due to be introduced on a phased basis across the network between autumn 2025 and early 2027.
“The newer system will facilitate the full network and allow for future network expansion, and is also more modern and automated for train management, to improve overall service performance,” the spokesman added.
“It is being replaced to accommodate an expanded network and have more modern train management systems for improved performance, not because of reliability.”
The new system will improve train performance by automating what are manual processes now, with Irish Rail stressing it is not being replaced because the old system was “problematic or unreliable”.
Separate to the signalling fault experienced on Thursday, Irish Rail has been dealing with the fallout from timetable changes on northern lines travelling to the city as well as on the Maynooth commuter and other routes over recent months.
Irish Rail introduced its new timetable in consultation with the National Transport Authority (NTA) on August 25th. Following widespread public complaints, it made changes to Maynooth, Drogheda and some other routes into Connolly a few weeks later, on September 11th.
From October 14th, the morning Connolly route services were restored to pre-August service patterns. Irish Rail said the October changes had “improved things, particularly around restoring some through services to the southside and eliminating some of the morning connections at Connolly which were exacerbating delays”.
“Punctuality performance has been impacted over recent weeks by the leaf fall season, as unfortunately it is every year regardless of timetable, and resulting low rail adhesion,” the spokesman said.
“Essentially, leaves on the line, particularly in damp conditions, are the equivalent of ice on the roads for trains, and notwithstanding a lot of preventative work, it can cause acceleration and braking to take longer.”
The rail company said it had been “a particularly bad” low rail adhesion season, and it is expected to come to an end over the next week or two which “will give a truer reflection on punctuality from the revised timetable”.
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