Mullingar rail misery due to flooding on track

Passengers using Irish Rail services between Mullingar and Dublin have been suffering severe delays since Monday last, February 17, due to a flooding problem on the track between Carrick on Shannon and Longford.
Passengers travelling from the Sligo direction are being brought by bus from Carrick to Longford - which is causing delays in the departure time from Longford, and thus delays right along the route through Mullingar and on to Dublin.
The delay on Wednesday saw commuters at Mullingar station waiting almost three quarters of an hour for the train to arrive, and there were delays again on Thursday morning.
Iarnród Éireann was, at the time of writing, anticipating that the problem might endure for the remainder of the week, and over the weekend.
“It doesn’t seem to be receding the way we would have expected,” said Barry Kenny, communications manager with Iarnród Éireann on Thursday, as he spoke of the flooding issue which has left a stretch of track close to Carrick on Shannon completely under water.
“I wouldn’t call it a ‘regular’ occurrence, but when there is excessive rainfall, that is a stretch we would monitor closely,” he stated, explaining that the track runs close to the Shannon.
For Thursday and Friday of this week, the 16.00hrs Connolly to Sligo service has been cancelled as a result of the problem.