DART SERVICES EXPERIENCED major delays last night after a concert at Malahide Castle as a result of anti-social behaviour, according to Irish Rail.
Many commuters vented their frustrations of the delays on social media last night as they tried to get home from the Liam Gallagher concert.
One train came to a stop at Portmarnock at around 11.30pm after some people onboard began “interfering” with the doors.
“Obviously, if the doors aren’t securely closed the train does come to a halt,” Irish Rail spokesperson Barry Kenny told TheJournal.ie.
“It was very busy after the concert and this was recurring so it was proving very difficult to rectify [the situation] as a result,” he said.
Due to the halted train at Portmarnock, a second train travelling behind it between Malahide and Portmarnock was forced to stop.
“We had two really busy trains that were delayed post-concert as a result,” Kenny said.
Kenny said that the majority of commuters on the second train, while “understandably frustrated”, didn’t cause any issues, but that there was some “anti-social behaviour” onboard.
“We had people on the second train basically prying doors open and getting down onto the track and that, of course, exacerbated the situation,” Kenny said.
Because there were commuters on the tracks, he added that a train outbound from the city, which was carrying many people who had attended the Taylor Swift concert in Croke Park, was also delayed as a result.
Addressing the first train, Kenny said: “Ultimately, we took the original train out of service at Portmarnock, got everybody off that train and it moved on empty.
“We moved the train between Malahide and Portmarnock onwards.”
An empty train from Malahide proceeded to pick up the passengers from the first train who were left at Portmarnock at around 1am.
“Obviously, between the length of time, the issues and anti-social behaviour, and how busy it was, it caused a lot of people to be both delayed and upset and we apologise for that.”
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