THE DART – NO ORDINARY DAY

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A new documentary takes viewers behind the scenes of Dublin’s iconic electric railway – the Dublin Area Rapid Transit system: the DART.

This film will give viewers a fascinating new insight into one of the capital’s best-known landmarks.

Opened in 1984, the DART runs along the coast of the Irish Sea – north of the city to Howth and Malahide and south to Bray and Greystones. More than 50,000 passengers travel on the DART every day.

The film captures some ordinary and extraordinary days on the DART through the experiences of those who work and travel on it.

Cameras take us behind the scenes on one of the most difficult days in DART history – the Bray Airshow in July 2022. The system came to a standstill after a delay resulted in passengers mass evacuating from trains and walking the tracks. The film captures the preparation for the big day, passenger reactions and how the staff coped when things went wrong on a scale never seen before.

The film also goes behind the scenes with the team managing the thousands of passengers en route to the Ireland-Armenia match at the Aviva Stadium. The documentary brings viewers on patrol with the ticket checkers and security personnel as they go about their jobs.

DART workers are on 24/7. Viewers will get to see the hidden world of Connolly Station at night – when engineers have a short window to do vital maintenance work on the tracks. They’ll also see the abseilers who check the sea wall for signs of erosion on the stretch of track on the stunning coastline between Bray and Greystones, as engineers attempt to protect the track from the ravages of climate change.

Characters featured include:

Michelle Lambe – a wages clerk based at DART HQ in Pearse Station who joined Irish Rail 20 years ago. Michelle earns extra money by doing crowd control at special events along the DART line. She has worked on concerts, matches and the Bray Air Show. She’s in high demand with her bubbly personality and loud voice! Michelle loves her job and the variety it gives her by working on special events.

Ciaran Devitt is the Station Manager in Bray. Ciaran grew up just 10-minutes-walk away from the station. His father and grandfather were also railway men and many other members of his family still work with Irish Rail today. Ciaran joined the company as a train driver and has rapidly advanced through the ranks. He was recently appointed acting Station Manager at Bray Station. This year was his first time heading up operations at Bray Station for the annual Bray Air Show – it turned out to be a baptism of fire.

DART driver Paddy Murray and his bride Meghan Aarssen travelled by DART from Greystones to Grand Canal Doc to their wedding ceremony in September and got a great send off from Paddy’s Irish Rail colleagues.