A garda insisted that the doors of a DART train stranded on the day of the Bray Air Show be opened with passengers inside already “distressed”.
A timeline of the events – which brought chaos to transport services in late July – explained how it took just six and a half minutes before the first passenger forced the doors of a train open after it came to a stop in sweltering conditions.
It explained how after one train came to a stop on the train line, both the gardaí and coast guard had requested the doors be opened so passengers could be evacuated.
Seven minutes later, the driver reported that a garda sergeant at the scene now “insists that doors should be opened” to let passengers disembark.
Another entry in the timeline said many on board were being evacuated through a local golf course; however, a “large group of trespassers” were moving north along the train line towards Shankill in South Dublin.
Irish Rail received around sixty formal complaints in the aftermath of the disruption with one passenger saying they were stuck on a train that was “rammed and hot”.
“The driver seems oblivious of the dangers of what is happening,” they said, “please tell him urgently, then call me. We need to move or get off the train.”
Another wrote: “Why’s the DART to Bray stopped? My daughter is in it with her two-year-old … it’s a bloody sauna, so dangerous. People just forced the doors open and everyone getting out onto the tracks. What’s going on? Sort it out!”