A number of passengers on the Irish Rail Cork-Heuston route encountered delays of several hours yesterday when the train they were travelling on struck a cow on the tracks yesterday evening, Wednesday, September 25.
The incident occurred close to Limerick Junction, at Monatogher, Co. Tipperary, yesterday evening, with Iarnród Éireann taking to social media to inform commuters of the incident, saying:
“17:25 Cork Heuston has struck a cow near Limerick jct. expect delays to services as a result.
“Update to follow,” the Irish Rail Twitter account added.
17:25 Cork Heuston has struck a cow near Limerick jct. expect delays to services as a result. Update to follow
— Iarnród Éireann (@IrishRail) September 25, 2019
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The incident led to passengers being delayed for approximately three hours before returning to Limerick Junction railway station.
An hour later, the 8:20pm Cork-Heuston train collected passengers of the 5:25pm train from the junction to continue their journey to Dublin.
20:20 Cork Heuston has now departed Limerick Jct for Heuston with customers from 17:25 Cork Heuston onboard
— Iarnród Éireann (@IrishRail) September 25, 2019
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The incident also led to a 40-minute delay for the next scheduled train, the 6:25pm service; special signalling arrangements were put in place to bypass the stricken engine, which had been damaged on impact with the unfortunate cow.
A Twitter user who claims to have been a passenger on the service in question posted a picture of the damage caused to the vehicle. Iarnród Éireann confirmed that engineers were sent to assist the train.