Irish Rail passengers on the Galway line this evening should expect expect delays of up to half an hour caused by Storm Ali.
Rail travel has been heavily disrupted today by fallen trees blocking railway lines as gale force winds have battered Ireland and the west coast in particular.
While public transport networks have been consumed by chaos, rail services have improved from this morning when passengers on the Galway line were delayed by up to 90 minutes.
Currently Irish rail are advising passengers in the west that trains on the Galway and Westport lines will be running up to 30 minutes late due to the weather, while those on the Sligo line can expect delays of up to an hour.
The Belfast/Dublin and DART lines have also been affected by the weather, but all other services are running as normal.
07.15hrs Westport to Dublin which was delayed and damaged by fallen trees earlier between Athlone and Tullamore, moving on from Tullamore at reduced speed to ensure safety due to windscreen damage pic.twitter.com/ENaIKqFAS4
— Iarnród Éireann (@IrishRail) September 19, 2018
Bus Eireann closed all services in Galway city this morning, but they have since re-opened with slight delays due to fallen trees on many roads.
Meanwhile many thousands of homes are still without power in Galway as rolling outage have spread throughout the city and county over the day.
While some areas like Screeb and Curra that were badly hit this morning have since had much of their power restored, continued bad weather has seen fresh outages in Salthill, Tuam, and Claregalway.
Tragically, Storm Ali has claimed two lives in Ireland so far today.
A woman in Galway was killed this morning when her caravan was blown off a cliff and onto the beach in Claddaghduff.
The woman, who was in her 50s, was just visiting Ireland from Switzeland, and was staying at a campsite in Claddaghduff.
Another man in his 20s was killed on the border of Armagh and Down this afternoon, and a another man in his 40s was injured.
The PSNI have said that the two were doing contract work for Northern Irish Water near Newry when a tree fell on them.
