Irish Rail should consider putting on extra trains on sunny days following a weekend of “just carnage” in Howth, a member of the public has argued. 

Visitors to the north Dublin town were stranded for hours in the afternoon, after long queues formed at the Dart station. 

Drivers were also trapped in traffic, as hundreds tried to leave the peninsula. 

On Lunchtime Live, listener Philip said he did not understand why Irish Rail did not anticipate the extra demand for public transport. 

“There was nobody that thought they needed extra transport to get the people in and out of Howth?” he said. 

“And people were queuing from the Dart station right along past the pier, the first pier, across the road, past the coffee shop.

“But no one could get in and out; the traffic couldn't get in and out.”

Irish Rail. Picture by: RollingNews.ie

Philip added that the concept of supply and demand is “not rocket science” and applies to public transport. 

“If it was any other job, if you're working for yourself and you wanted to make money, you'd say, ‘You know what? We'll have an extra few bodies this year because we know it's going to be busy,’” he queried. 

“It makes no sense.” 

Philip said the chaos at the end of the day “just takes the fun out of it”. 

“It's just madness, it's just Ireland for you,” he said. 

“It's just, like, even the councillors and the TDs and all these locals, surely somebody says, ‘There's some big gig on, there's something big happening, let's get more transport.’” 

Main image: The DART. Picture by: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland