Bray Air Show services 24th July 2022 - a message and apology from Jim Meade, Chief Executive

25 July 2022

We apologise to customers who were delayed, disrupted or distressed as they sought to travel to yesterday's Bray Air Show.

Dear Customers,

At the outset, I wish to apologise to customers who were delayed, disrupted or distressed as they sought to travel to yesterday’s Bray Air Show.

The Air Show is traditionally one of the busiest days of the year on DART, and in planning with organisers, we arranged for additional DARTs to operate.  Ultimately, nine extra DARTs operated from the city centre to Bray on Sunday between late morning and early afternoon.

As the last of these – the 13:45hrs Connolly to Bray, approached Bray Station, it stopped outside the station, waiting for a platform to become clear ahead.  Unfortunately, doors were forced open on one of the carriages after it had been stopped for approximately 6 minutes, and a number of people descended onto the track to walk towards the station.

Immediately, trains had to be halted in both directions due to the presence of people on the track.  Quite quickly, others – now concerned at the extending delay, and at the very warm conditions – also left the train, and this continued across a number of carriages.  A second train – the 13:05hrs Howth to Greystones – was stopped further back towards Shankill, and after approximately 20 minutes, customers also out of concern for the delay and heat on board began to leave the train. 

While trains were unable to move during this time, staff, Gardaí and Dublin Fire Brigade were at both Bray, and travelled to the second train to assist customers.  In addition, customers were assisted from two other trains in a controlled manner.

What should have been an enjoyable family day out ended for many in delay, upset and distress, including those who felt they had no option but to disembark from trains.  We are sorry for this.

We will review all aspects of our operational plan, including:

• Demand before the event, and capacity available to customers.  Notwithstanding the additional DARTs which operated, there was significant pressure on capacity reported.
• Information available to customers on board and at stations
• Response to the initial incident of detraining
• Ventilation on board

We assure customers that we will respond to any lessons learned from this review to ensure we prevent a recurrence.

Thank you for travelling with us, and again, we apologise to those who were impacted by these events in any way.

Yours sincerely,

Jim Meade,

Chief Executive