Another fine mess on the maynooth line

[ColmmacO]

On 18.02 bray to longford from lansdowne. Train stops at connolly at 18.15. No problems there. Train waits and waits, and waits.
No announcements on train.
Drogheda train behind us pulls in and takes off. Darts pull in and take off.
No problems there.
15 minutes at platform 7 at this stage. Still no information from driver.
Someone is making announcements in the station but on car 3 of 8 so we cant hear it properly. Think I hear something along the lines of the maynooth wexford service has a technical problem.
More waiting. Still no announcements or information. Then someone in our carriage sees others getting out further back down the train.
People start to get up and leave train. There is now several hundred people standing on the platform. Look at our train, there are still people in cars one and two blissfully unaware that something is going on. We gesture to them from the platform to get off. 2 irish rail staff standing on platform but not telling people to get off the train.
Up pulls 18.37 (ex pearse) to maynooth. Standing room only.
4 cars. We now have to fit the (at least) 500 odd people from our train onto a train that is already half full.
Extremely packed leaving connolly. Have left a lot of people behind that were on an earlier service and due to lack of information and incompetance now have to wait for the next service.
Turn onto maynooth line, see inbound wexford service parked on tracks at junction.
Am guessing this broke down.
Get to coolmine. Driver announces ' we are now arriving into castleknock station, castleknock next stop' to puzzled looks.
20 minutes late to boot.

I can accept from time to time that I am going to be late due public transport issues whether I am going in or home. What I cant accept are the utterly incomprehensible customer service failures. There was an easy win here for Irish Rail. Put the driver on the tannoy and explain there is a delay. Even give a reason, god forbid. And perhaps use the two people you have standing about on the platform to advise your passengers what is happening.

Can anyone explain whether it was the inbound wexford service that broke down or the outbound one I was on?
If it was the inbound, that raises a whole lot more questions.

[Mark Gleeson]

It was the 17:51 Maynooth Pearse which broke down

Can't understand why your train was not sent down the Newcommen Curve route, hell I can't figure out how a inbound train could cause this level of trouble.

[ColmmacO]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

It was the 17:51 Maynooth Pearse which broke down

Can't understand why your train was not sent down the Newcommen Curve route, hell I can't figure out how a inbound train could cause this level of trouble.

That was my thinking exactly Mark.
I was under the impression that they took us off our train so that they could use it as a replacement for the service the broken down inbound one was meant to run.
But why not use the 18.30 pearse to maynooth instead?
Stop that at connolly. Transfer its passengers to the earlier 8 car train which actually has the capacity to handle the extra people.
Instead of that they tried to fit 3 into 1, and inevitably, people got left behind.