Iarnród Éireann halts trains after man is struck on tracks

RAIL services across the country were severely disrupted last night after a 49-year-old man was struck and killed by a train in Co Laois.

The incident occurred just after 3pm when an out-of-service train that was en route from a service depot to Dublin’s Heuston station struck the man near the Portarlington train station in Co Laois.

Gardaí are investigating why the man was on the tracks.

The incident forced Iarnród Éireann to halt all trains which were on the track at the time and to cancel all services in and out of Heuston.

Thousands of inter-city and commuter passengers were disrupted.

Inter-city services to Cork, Limerick, Galway, Killarney and Westport were cancelled.

However, the commuter service to Newbridge was extended to Kildare, and the Waterford service continued without interruption. There were some delays.

Iarnród Eireann organised bus transfers for passengers stuck at Heuston, and for more buses to collect passengers who were stranded on the halted trains.

Bus transfers were in operation between Heuston, Athlone, and Kildare-Portlaoise, where trains were on standby for onward journeys to the south and west.

Iarnród Éireann apologised for the inconvenience.

The line at Portarlington reopened at about 7pm but delays continued for the remainder of the evening.

Delays also occurred on Malahide DARTs, the Northern Commuter and Belfast services.

In an effort to ease the disruption, Dublin Bus honoured rail tickets while Bus Eireann also honoured northern commuter rail tickets.