Updated: 8.05am
A FIRE ON board an Irish Rail train from Belfast to Dublin caused massive delays for over a hundred passengers last night but there were no injuries in the incident.
Around 114 passengers were on board the 6.05pm Belfast to Dublin train last night when a fire broke out in one of its compartments at around 7pm last night.
Alerted to the fire, the driver pulled up at a disused station at Gorahwood near Newry in Co Down and crews from the Northern Ireland and Fire Rescue Service were on the scene a short time later.
BBC News reports that carriages were moved away from the train – but one passenger disputed this account – as the fire was brought under control and quotes group commander Eddie Carroll as saying that fire officers were “confronted with a well developed fire”.
Northern Ireland Transport Minister Danny Kennedy, who was at the scene and helped transfer passengers to a replacement service, said there would be a full investigation.
One passenger who contacted TheJournal.ie, Conor Lantry, said that the fire took nearly three hours to extinguish and claimed that passengers were not offered any food with limited water available.
Irish Rail said passengers were transferred onto the 8.05pm train from Belfast to Connolly Station in Dublin which itself was 30 minutes late.
Passengers arrived in Dublin at around 1.30am this morning, five hours late. The rail company apologised to passengers for the delays.
Other trains bound for Dublin and coming from the capital to Belfast had to be terminated at Newry with road replacement services provided for passengers.
This morning, Translink Northern Ireland said that services are running as normal following the disruption last night.
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