TENSIONS ARE running high this morning as commuters travelling to and from Dublin's Heuston station are experiencing significant delays of over 90 minutes.
The delays began early this morning as it was discovered that vandals had stolen 320 metres of signalling equipment between Newbridge and Kildare, impacting all services on that route.
The burglary, which took place overnight, resulted in signal failures across the board, with Real Time Information boards made unavailable and certain routes terminating in Newbridge in an attempt to minimise delays to services to the capital city.
The signalling issues were rectified at approximately 9.30am but delays are ongoing, with some passengers warned they face a 90 minute wait for their service.
Thousands of commuters have been affected by the vandalism, with frustrations heightened by inaccurate estimations of wait times-- such as people being delayed for two hours when the Irish Rail official Twitter account warned them to expect a wait of 50 minutes.
Just arriving into Heuston now. 1 hour and 40 minutes delayed. Please convey accurate information to your customers. I appreciate the delay was out of your control but how you communicate the level of delay is entirely within your control.
— Aisling Bolton (@BoltonAisling) October 9, 2019
Signalling cables and other rail equipment such as overhead power lines and metal fences tend to be a target for thieves who go on to sell the equipment for scrap. The theft of signalling equipment often results in long delays for commuters.
So far there have been no reports of an arrest or investigation into the stolen equipment.
