Iarnród Éireann to offer ticket refunds

RAIL COMMUTERS with monthly or annual passes deciding against using buses as an alternative to the northern line will be able to get refunds, Iarnród Éireann has announced.

The company said it hoped that commuters will stay with them during repairs to the railway viaduct over the Broadmeadow estuary in Malahide, which collapsed on Friday.

Repairs to the viaduct are likely to take at least three months.

People who avail of the annual or monthly taxsaver ticket should return them to their employers, who will in turn return them to the taxsaver office in Connolly station for reimbursement.

Iarnród Éireann will provide a pro-rata refund/credit to any taxsaver customer who cancels their monthly or annual ticket as a result of the disruption.

Mark Gleeson from the Rail Users Ireland group said services yesterday were better generally than Monday.

However, he added, that concerns still existed over the remaining train services between Belfast and Drogheda.

All Dublin-Belfast Enterprise services are suspended between Drogheda and Dublin as a result of the viaduct collapse.

He said there are just two trains for the Belfast-Drogheda service at present as a third is stranded in the Inchicore depot and cannot be pressed into service.

One of the trains broke down on Monday night and there could be a problem of overuse, he warned.

“You are going to see a lot of breakdowns. Next week they are going to have serious problems, and the service could be in serious trouble.”

He urged that two sets of coaches in Dundalk be used on the line or else that Translink, the joint operators of the service and who are based in Belfast, use a spare set of coaches known as the Gatwick set.

He also said that some commuters had missed their connecting train from Drogheda northwards because their buses had not arrived on time.

However, Mr Gleeson said the decision, taken swiftly by Iarnród Éireann to put direct buses into the city centre from Balbriggan had worked well and the buses were taking just 45 minutes to get into the city centre.

He also welcomed the introduction by Dublin Bus of two extra buses from Rush train station at 06:45 and 07:15.

“The alternative services still need a bit of work,” he said.

“We need more details in terms of timetables and journey times,” he added.