Irish Rail has admitted that there are “thousands and thousands” of commuters affected by this morning’s signal failure at Heuston Station.
There are currently no services operating into and out of Heuston.
Spokesperson Jane Cregan told RTE radio’s Morning Ireland that the volume of passengers impacted would make it impossible to provide a substitute bus service as is normal practice.
Ms Cregan acknowledged that some passengers are effectively stranded on trains that had already left their stations of origin, but the majority had not yet left the stations.
“We are advising them to seek alternative transport. Because the signal system is down we can’t do anything.”
The “major signal fault” means that no trains are coming into or out of Dublin’s Heuston Station.
“At present we’re working to rectify the fault.”
She explained that a number of services had commenced before the fault was detected so the early morning train from Cork to Dublin is stranded in Charleville while the Waterford train is in Kilkenny.
The Waterford service will now go as far as Athy.
“In reality there’s nothing moving. We’re not in a position to provide bus services because of the numbers.”
