CABLE CHAOS
thousands of passengers hit by delays as vandals try to steal railway signal gear
MINDLESS vandals sparked chaos for thousands of commuters yesterday morning after they tried to steal railway cabling.
It led to severe cancellations and delays of up to 90 minutes for passengers travelling in and out of Dublin’s Heuston Station.
Around €4,000 of damage was caused to signalling equipment between Newbridge and Kildare.
Irish Rail spokeswoman Jane Cregan said the attempted theft was discovered at about 5am when the trains started operating.
She added the automatic signalling system had to be switched to manual,
sparking setbacks during the morning rush hour.
Ms Creegan told RTE: “Engineers are on site replacing the cabling [on the Northern line], while a manual system is being used this morning.
“We hope to have the cabling system working again by mid-morning but it is unfortunate the morning peak rush has been badly disrupted.”
The theft of copper has become more common in recent years because of its increased value.
A Garda spokesman said officers are trying to track down the culprits.
He added: “Gardai are investigating a theft of cable from a train line on the Melitta Road, Kildare. No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing.” Ms Cregan said refunds were given to affected passengers and services operated as normal after 12pm.
She added: “The most significant cost was the disruption to our customers.
“We had significant delays right up until midday as a result of it.”
The Newbridge/hazelhatch to Grand Canal Dock line was affected by delays, while the Heuston to Portlaoise route was forced to terminate at Newbridge for a number of hours.
There was also no Luas service between Blackhorse and the Point or Connolly station. Irish Rail warned in a tweet: “Delays up to 90 minutes to services into Heuston can be expected due to earlier signalling issues.
“These delays are expected to ease throughout the morning.”
An earlier post read: “Due to overnight vandalism of signalling equipment between Newbridge and Kildare, there will be significant delays to all services into and out of Heuston this morning.
“Delays of up to 60mins to all services are expected.”
There’ll be significant delays to all services in and out of Heuston IRISH RAIL STATEMENT YESTERDAY