More than 30 Dart, suburban and intercity trains were delayed by up to an hour yesterday following a series of signalling faults in Dublin yesterday.
An initial fault with the line signals at Howth Junction at 10.30am caused some disruption to northern-bound trains, but was quickly remedied. However, a second fault, described by Iarnród Éireann as a "major signalling fault", hit at 10.45am.
This affected all Dart services to the north and south of the city, as well as the Drogheda and Maynooth commuter services and the Belfast and Sligo intercity trains. More than 30 trains on these routes were stopped until 11.25am. Most were halted in stations but some were stuck between stations.
The 11am Dublin to Belfast train was delayed by half an hour in Connolly Station, Dublin.
The delays came at the start of one of the busiest weekends of the year for the rail service. About 200,000 passengers are due to use the intercity service over the weekend. Additional trains to bring passengers to the weekend's GAA matches had sold out by Thursday.
