An Irish soldier has told of how he broke open the door of a DART train "to protect the lives of our citizens".
There was major delay to DART services yesterday as passengers disembarked from a DART stalled near Bray train station at 14:55 following reports of very hot conditions on board. And a soldier on board, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke to Dublin Live about the situation on board the train - and said if he "didn't act people would have been seriously injured".
He said: "At approximately 13:40, I boarded a train at Salthill-Monkstown with my mother, who is 72, and my two sons. We had planned to Park and Ride to Bray DART Station after being encouraged by the Department of Transport to do.
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"When we went to board the first train, it was overloaded with passengers. We continued to wait until another three trains had passed till I deemed it was safe enough to board.
"We entered the last carriage as I thought it would be the most vacant. To my disbelief it was fairly full but we managed to embark as I didn't want for my sons to miss the Air Show."
The soldier said that after they entered people in the carriage were screaming "no more passengers to board".
"As we moved to our next station I realised why people were screaming for no more passengers to board as the temperature felt it was well exceeding 50C," he said.
"I noticed when we stopped at the next stop there was no room for anyone to board and people were trying to communicate that there was no air on the carriage. I was approximately five to six stops from Bray when I realised the was no way to open windows, and I can confirm the air conditioning wasn't operational.
"As a serving soldier of the Irish Defence Forces, it is my duty to protect the lives of Irish citizens, so I tried to make contact using the intercom emergency system to inform the driver of the situation in our carriage."
The solider said he received no response from the train driver and asked the passengers to consent to the doors being opened.
He said: "They gave positive yes so I punched out the protective glass and activated the door release valve, and then manually open the doors with both hands. Immediately passengers started to jump from the carriage.
"Seeing this, I proceeded to the other door and carried out the same. This time I exited the carriage and help passengers disembark.
"I assisted elderly and young children then realised I needed to assist my own kids and family, so I climbed back on board and collected my family and made our way by foot to the level crossing where many emergency services were mobilised to attend to the dehydrated passengers walking the tracks."
An Irish Rail spokesman told Dublin Live that they fully accept that some people were forced to open the doors of the carriages.
He said in his statement this morning: "The account described suggests that the gentleman concerned was not part of the group who first forced doors open, which happened as the DART was waiting outside Bray Station for a platform. We fully accept that - given the delay caused by the first people to force doors open - other people subsequently also left trains out of genuine concern for themselves and others, given the indefinite delay the first incident caused and the very busy and warm conditions.
"While it remains the case that the initial group caused a difficult situation to worsen considerably by trespassing, we accept that the vast majority of people who subsequently left trains would not be characterised in the same way. We apologise to all customers whose day was delayed or disrupted by the incident at Bray, and we will be investigating it fully."
On Sunday evening, an Irish Rail spokesman said: ""At 14:55hrs, a southbound DART was awaiting a clear platform at Bray before proceeding into the station, when a number of people forced open doors and walked on the track.
"This dangerous act means that trains had to be stopped in both directions while our staff and Gardai clear trespassers from the line, resulting in delays for customers on board this and trains behind it, and a similar issue then occurred on the DART behind. The line was closed between Dalkey and Bray. While people are understandably anxious to reach the station, on such a busy and warm day, this has turned a delay outside Bray of just over 5 minutes into one which has impacted services for up to two hours.
"Staff are at stations and on board updating customers, and have been working with Gardaí to clear the line, which is expected to reopen around now (17:00hrs) in time for customers travelling home from the Bray Air Show. We apologise to customers for the delay and upset caused, and will fully investigate the incident."
Today Jim Meade, Chief Executive of Irish Rail, has issued an apology to customers and outlined a review of operations. You can read the full statement here.
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