By Maura Fay
maura.fay@meathpost.com

The closure of the Drogheda-Dublin line following a freight train
derailment outside Skerries caused massive inconvenience and distress
for Meath Commuters last Friday (11th).

The 1,000 passengers that use Laytown and Gormanston train stations on
a daily basis were left stranded as no trains ran from Drogheda to
Dublin.

Passengers were forced to make alternative travel arrangements to get
to Dublin as Iarnród Eireann did not offer any alternative transport.
“Collectively for the entire route we would not have been in a
position to provide alternative transport. You are talking about 7,000
people at morning peak being effected,” said Iarnród Eireann
spokesperson Barry Kenny.

Garret O’Brien from Bettystown had to take the car instead of the
train to get into work Friday morning.

“I ended up having to take the Port Tunnel to get through to the city
centre. It cost me €12 [to go through the Port Tunnel] and then €1.65
for the East-Link bridge. I work in Ballsbridge so it cost me the guts
of €14 not to the mind the petrol to get the whole way over there,” he
said. “It was just one of those things. I never heard of a train
derailment happening before.”

The freight train, which was carrying mineral ore from Tara Mines to
the North Wall, derailed at 11.00pm last Thursday night (10th
January).

Mr Kenny refused to confirm whether not an axle breaking on one of the
wagons had caused the derailment.

“Our initial investigations are focusing on a fault with one of the
wagons. We don’t go into detail on investigations which are ongoing,”
said Mr Kenny. Six of the train’s eleven wagons were derailed.
Meath commuters could get a train home Friday evening (11th) but
“there were significant delays on the services going home because
there was only one line operational and also because trains had travel
past the derailment site at walking speed” said Mr Kenny.

The line was re-opened Sunday night (13th) and full service resumed
Monday morning (14th).