Irish Rail apologise to passengers in Carlow and Kilkenny left waiting after breakdown

Iarnród Eireann have apologised to passengers travelling to Kilkenny and Waterford who were left waiting for more than an hour at the station in Bagenalstown after a train from Dublin broke down yesterday.

The company shut down the Muine Bheag station last June and there were complaints on social media that the stranded passengers – some of them quite elderly – were left waiting out in the cold.

Spokesperson Jane Cregan says their crews had problems moving a broken down engineering machine off the track so the delay was much longer than they initially anticipated.

Eventually buses were organised to bring people onwards to Kilkenny, Thomastown and Waterford.

However she said it is quite a rare incident and confirmed that they won’t be reconsidering the closure of the Muine Bheag station.