A four-carriage passenger train that split in two while travelling at 25mph could have resulted in a serious accident, Íarnrod Éireann admitted today.
Travellers were left shocked after the front two carriages decoupled from the rear cars on the Rosslare-to-Dublin route.
Íarnrod Éireann said the four-car train was carrying around 40 passengers on route for Enniscorthy on the 1.25pm service to Dublin yesterday at the time.
Company spokesman Barry Kenny agreed that if a person had been walking between the two carriages at the time it could have resulted in a much more serious accident.
"Thankfully no one on board was injured, and no danger resulted to people as a result," he said. "There is a thorough investigation under way because it is extremely serious."
Mr Kenny said the emergency brake would have been quickly applied to the train, which was travelling at 25mph, but anyone who saw the gap develop would have been quite shocked.
Íarnrod Éireann engineers were examining the train to find out how the carriages separated. Mr Kenny said the train had been brought to the company's maintenance centre in Drogheda for technical examination.