DART SERVICES BETWEEN Dublin’s Connolly station and Greystones in Co Wicklow will be suspended from today until Monday, as Irish Rail carries out scheduled engineering works along the coastal line.

The disruption will affect all stations on the route, with replacement bus transfers operating.

Other services from Connolly remain unaffected, but the line between Drogheda and Dundalk will also be closed from Saturday to Monday.

Consumer group Rail Users Ireland has raised concerns about the timing of the closure, pointing to what it describes as repeated disruption during busy leisure weekends.

But Irish Rail said this weekend that it will run extra services to accommodate the demand that events including the Women’s Mini Marathon, the Forbidden Fruit music festival and the Bloom gardening and food show.

‘Frustrating’

Mark Gleeson of Rail Users Ireland said the lack of weekend reliability is becoming increasingly problematic for passengers.

“It’s getting very frustrating for business owners and for people trying to get to work, they just cannot rely on the service at all on weekends during the summer period,” he said.

He added that while engineering works are scheduled in advance, the timing clashes with a packed calendar of major events in the capital.

“It’s not a great day to choose, because the mini-marathon is on, there’s concerts in Raheny, and it’s a nice weekend outside as well.”

Busy weekend

The June bank holiday weekend is set to be one of the busiest of the year in Dublin for large events.

On Sunday, approximately 28,000 women are expected to take part in the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon.

Tens of thousands are also expected to attend gardening festival Bloom in Phoenix Park.

Forbidden Fruit music festival is on in Kilmainham on Saturday and Sunday, with around 15,000 attendees each day.

CMAT will play St Anne’s Park in Raheny on Saturday, with Snow Patrol taking the stage on Sunday night, with each gig expecting 20,000 concertgoers.

Irish Rail said it will run additional services across the network to accommodate demand linked to the busy weekend, including extra Dart, Maynooth and Drogheda commuter trains after these major events.

Extra services will operate following the concerts in St Anne’s Park, with extra intercity services planned from Waterford to Heuston station on Saturday and Sunday, and from Cork and Galway on Sunday for Bloom.

Last weekend saw heavy passenger demand in Howth, with tens of thousands travelling in the warm weather.

An estimated 35,000 passengers travelled to Howth, which was hosting its annual maritime and food festival, with videos from the area showing long queues at peak travel times. Irish Rail said passengers were moved through the station quickly once trains arrived.

The Connolly-Greystones closure is part of wider engineering works taking place across the network, including track renewal, overhead line replacement, substation works and retaining wall upgrades.

Irish Rail said similar southside Dart closures will not take place again until mid-September, following the completion of this phase of works.

It says the works are essential to long-term reliability and safety on the network.

The timing of the works comes after a number of Irish Rail services were suspended on Friday following a major signal fault.